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Immigration Officials Charged
us$800 To Alter Records
The two immigration officials
detained by the Fiscalía and the
Organismo de Investigaciones
Judicial (OIJ) last Thursday
charged us$800 to erase "impedimento
de salida" to fugitives of
justice.
The "impedimento de salida" is a
restriction placed upon an
individual facing a judicial
process and is prevented from
leaving the country. Border
control points at Peñas Blancas,
Paso Canoas and the Juan
Santamaria international
airport, can detain anyone who
has an "impedimento" on his or
her immigration file.
Investigators say that the
officials would temporarily
alter the records of a fugitive
that would then be allowed to
leave the country without a
problem. Once the fugitive had
left, the records would be put
back to original state.
A 37 year old man identified
only by his last name, Piedra,
and a 45 year old woman
identified as González, will
spend the next three months in
preventive detention (jail)
while investigators continue to
gather evidence. Both were
detained while on the job at the
Dirección de Migración, in La
Uruca
Authorities raided the
immigration offices following an
investigation after sub-director
of Migración, Roxana Quesada
received an anonymous email and
contact the OIJ. Quesdad said
that the person who sent her the
email said in the email
that he or she was placing great
faith in her to do the right
thing and in her honesty.
Authorities discovered that in
addition to changing records,
the pair would also provide
false certifications of a
person's movement in and out of
Costa Rica. A person facing a
charge for a crime could be
absolved by providing a
certificate that he or she was
not in the country at the time
of the crime.
Piedra and González would access
the immigration computer to
provide the service, though
neither were authorized to
access the records they altered,
said Quesada. The investigation
found that Piedra had been using
a password of an immigration
official would had left the
immigration service years
before.
Authorities say that the pair
had been altering records as far
back as a year and had
each worked at immigration for
10 years.
The OIJ used hidden cameras and
monitored computer use that
discovered the record tampering.
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