"Chinese Mafia" Offered Bribes For Visas
A long and tedious investigation resulted in the arrest of five yesterday, related to a group who had offered to bribe the head of the Migración y Extranjería, Mario Zamora, to approve visa to Orientals. Officials say the five are members of the "chinese mafia" that has been operating in the country for years.

Authorities say that the group offered the immigration director us$2.500.000 to issue 500 visas for Chinese nationals. One of the arrested was an employee of the Legislative Assembly, who was detained outside the Legislature, along with a woman who is believed to be the head of the group.

Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) agents said that they found 30 passports in the possession of the pair.

The investigation began when the group offered Zamora us$10.000 dollars to free two Chinese nationals in the immigration holding cells. Zamora contacted higher up and in co-ordination with the OIJ and the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública, they decided to accept us$5.000 and free one of the detainees.

Authorities had suspected that the group had been operating for some time and had been successful in bribing former immigration officials, including possibly a former director.

During the investigation, more requests for visas were made, the group offering us$5.000 for each visa. In total 500 requests were made, leading authorities to decide that they had enough evidence to arrest the group.

In simultaneous actions, arrests were made in restaurants and shops in San Diego de la Unión, in barrio San Martín in San Carlos (Cuidad Quesada) and Sabanilla de Montes de Oca and a warehouse in bario Los Angeles in San José.

The restaurants and shops all belong to orientals who harboured the illegals, who were, according to the authorities, forced to work as slaves while waiting for their paperwork.

In a press conference that included immigration director Zamora, the head of the OIJ internal affairs and the minister of the Seguridad, the details of the operation were made public, including the fact that more arrests will be forthcoming. At the press conference it was also announced that several high ranking current and former immigration officials are being investigated, however their names were not made public.