Prisoners Use Cellular
Phones To Extort Their
Victims On the Outside
Costa Rican authorities
say that an organized
group, using callers
from inside the La
Reforma prison, are
threatening and
blackmailing businessmen
into paying ransom money
to avoid the injury or
death of a family
member. This is the
fourth reported case so
far this year.
The latest case is of an
accountant of a casino
who called police
instead of paying up the
ransom.
Authorities say that a
call originating from a
cellular telephone from
a prisoner of La Reforma
called the accountant,
calling him by name,
telling him to pay an
undisclosed sum of money
to two men waiting on
motorcycles outside the
casino or a member of
his family would be
killed.
The caller told his
victim that he was a
prisoner in La Reforma
and that he had been
contracted by a rival to
kill a member of his
family and that the
payment would avoid any
harm to his family.
The Organismo de
Investigación Judicial (OIJ)
says that three other
victims have fallen to
this scheme so far this
year, in one case the
payment was of ˘4
million colones
(us$8.000).
Prison authorities have
confiscated some 96
cellular phones in the
prisons in the last
year. The cellular
phones are smuggled in
to the prison, hidden in
private body parts, and
used by the prisoners to
have contact with the
outside and more
evident, use them to
commit crimes of
extortion and robbery of
vehicles.
In addition to the
extortion scheme,
prisoners, with the help
of accomplices on the
outside, placed ads in
the local print
newspapers for easy
financing on vehicles.
The potential victim
responding to the ad
would be told to take
the vehicle to a
particular shop to have
it valued only to find
the vehicle gone and the
shop empty when
returning to pick up the
vehicle.
The OIJ says that it has
its eyes on at least
five Reforma prisoners. |
|
