Interpol Offers Help
To Discredited
Intelligence Service
The discredited Costa
Rican intelligence
police service, the
Dirección de
Inteligencia y Seguridad
(DIS), will get a visit
from the secretary
general of the
International Police
(Interpol), Ronald
Noble, who will be
meeting with authorities
of the Ministerio de
Seguridad and government
officials.
Noble is expected to
meet with Seguridad
minister, Janina del
Vecchio, and the
ministro de la
Presidencia, Rodrigo
Arias, who will be
discussing drug
trafficking, organized
crime and international
fugitives hiding out in
Costa Rica, as the main
topics.
Noble is also expected
to meet with the current
director of the DIS,
José Torres.
The DIS, a police force
that comes under the arm
of the ministerio de la
Presidencia, also known
as the "political
police" force of the
country, is attached to
the Interpol office in
San José.
The visit by Noble to
advise the DIS as part
of the government's plan
to reform the DIS. Last
month the government
also asked the help of
the governments of Chile
and Colombia to assist
it, weeks after it
uncover corruption
within the police
organization, which went
as high as the
sub-director and forcing
the resignation of the
director.
In addition, the DIS has
been accused by union
groups and political
parties of spying on
their activities,
infiltrating
organizations and the
illegal gathering of
information and taping
telephone conversations,
all actions that require
the authorization of a
judge.
The scandal that rocked
the DIS was the alleged
bank fraud involving
former DIS sub-director,
Roberto Guillén.
Guillén was removed from
his position on November
25 following a series of
raids on DIS offices and
the completion of a
judicial investigation.
Opponents to the DIS,
that include the current
Fiscal General,
Francisco Dall'Anesse,
believe that the that
the DIS should work as a
police agency and be
under the control and
regulations of a police
unit that must account
for its actions. "The
country does not need an
espionage body", said
Dall'Anesse.
In addition to Guillén,
a number of other
individuals who do not
work for the government,
were also apprehended
and believed to be form
part of the group that
used information from
the DIS to falsify
cheques and other bank
documents to defraud the
banks and their
customers.
The investigation
revealed that Guillén
was the key to accessing
private information from
the DIS and Casa
Presidencial computers,
from a private database,
that was used in a fraud
totalling at us$357.000
dollars. |
