Prisoners Use Cellular
Telephones To Extort
Their Vicitms
On average prison
authorities confiscate
15 cellular telephones a
month from prisoners who
use them to extort
victims on the outside.
In total authorities of
the Adaptación Social
and the fraud section of
the Organismo de
Investigación Judicial (OIJ)
have confiscated 372
cellular telephones in
the hands of prisoners
in the last two years.
The majority were found
in La Reforma located in
Alajuela.
The OIJ report that this
year alone they have
received 80 complaints
of extortion, 60 of
which originated from La
Reforma.
Francisco Segura,
sub-director of the oIJ,
said that they are doing
a full investigation to
eliminate this type of
crime by prisoners who
use information obtained
from the local
newspapers to call their
victims to extort
them with the help of
associates on the
outside.
According to judicial
authorities, prisoners
scour the classifieds of
the local newspapers
looking for potential
victims and using the
contraband cellular
telephone that is
smuggled into the
prison, begin the
process of extortion.
In addition to the
cellular telephones,
prison officials have
also confiscated
notepads and notebooks
containing information
on their victims which
appear to be selected at
random.
Authorities say victims
are mainly those who
place classified ads to
sell expensive vehicles
or homes.
The use of the cellular
telephone is vital to
the extortion practice
of the inmates after
prison authorities
changed the public
telephone for use by the
inmates where an
announcement tells the
person receiving the
call that it is
originating from a
prison.
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