Agents of the Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) with the assistance of the public police force carried out 13 searches the morning of this Wednesday, November 11 in the area of Guápiles, Cariari, Guácimo, Pocora and at the Carlos Luis Fallas Prison in Limon, also in San Rafael, Heredia with the purpose of arresting memebers of a drug trafficking organization.
The operations culminated with the arrest of 11 people among them 5 penitentiary police officers who are apparently involved with the criminal group.
¨This is a massive and simultaneous operation by OIJ directed against a criminal organization that is involved in the trafficking of drugs of different kind“, explained Walter Espinoza, director of OIJ.
The investigation began back in August 2017, ¨We initially coordinated with the Ministry of Justice in virtue of the alert received by OIJ in regards to the execution of suspicious activities within the prison¨, commented Espinoza, who added that the penitentiary police officers arrested apparently were bringing in illicit substances to prison as well as cell phones and selling them for high prices. The police officers detained are of last names Brenes Vega, Paguagua Jiménez, Anzora Salazar, Jiménez Sandoval and Rivera González, this last one had resigned his job recently.
The rest of the people arrested were three women and three men, some of them have family links with the police officers detained.
A man who is already in prison is also involved in these group, he served as the link with the rest of the prisoners, the man of last names Camacho Chaves, is serving time for sexual abuse, and was receiving as international transfers large amounts in dollars in a bank account to his name. The man has no known businesses or legit incomes known and therefore agents suspect there could be a foreign investor.
The operations culminated with the arrest of 11 people among them 5 penitentiary police officers who are apparently involved with the criminal group.
¨This is a massive and simultaneous operation by OIJ directed against a criminal organization that is involved in the trafficking of drugs of different kind“, explained Walter Espinoza, director of OIJ.
The investigation began back in August 2017, ¨We initially coordinated with the Ministry of Justice in virtue of the alert received by OIJ in regards to the execution of suspicious activities within the prison¨, commented Espinoza, who added that the penitentiary police officers arrested apparently were bringing in illicit substances to prison as well as cell phones and selling them for high prices. The police officers detained are of last names Brenes Vega, Paguagua Jiménez, Anzora Salazar, Jiménez Sandoval and Rivera González, this last one had resigned his job recently.
The rest of the people arrested were three women and three men, some of them have family links with the police officers detained.
A man who is already in prison is also involved in these group, he served as the link with the rest of the prisoners, the man of last names Camacho Chaves, is serving time for sexual abuse, and was receiving as international transfers large amounts in dollars in a bank account to his name. The man has no known businesses or legit incomes known and therefore agents suspect there could be a foreign investor.
