PERU:
Setting the Drug Lords Free
Ángel Páez

LIMA,  (IPS) - Releasing alleged or convicted drug traffickers from prison is becoming common practice in the Peruvian justice system.

John Salazar Paredes, prosecuted by the anti-drugs crime unit for allegedly heading a money laundering racket for drug traffickers, walked free in early March after less than a year in prison. The crime he is accused of carries a sentence of 25 years behind bars, without any sentencing benefits.

A strategy regularly used by drug traffickers' defence lawyers is to apply to certain judges for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming lack of evidence for their clients' imprisonment. Habeas corpus is a court petition that forces law enforcement authorities to produce a prisoner they are holding and to legally justify his or her confinement.

In this case, Judge Juan Carlos Ramos found in Salazar's favour, without informing the prosecuting judge of his decision, nor the Public Prosecutor's Office for Drug Trafficking Affairs, as laid down by law.

Four days later, Ramos was removed from his post by the office for oversight of the judiciary, and the courts ordered Salazar's recapture.

But this case was not the first of its kind.

In November, Salazar's wife Pilar Tam Palomino, charged with belonging to the criminal organisation headed by her husband, gained her freedom by the same method: applying to a judge for a writ of habeas corpus.

Salazar and Palomino were charged in May 2006 of leading, and belonging to, respectively, a money laundering organisation working for a powerful Peruvian drug trafficker of Dutch descent, Ment Dijkhuizen, a businessman whose front activity as an exporter of tinned asparagus, artichokes and mangoes to the United States and Europe was used as a cover for shipments of high-purity cocaine.

In November 2005, police at the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands discovered 1.6 tons of cocaine hidden in asparagus tins exported by one of Dijkhuisen's companies. The drug trafficker's computer and day planners contained references to a large number of cash transfers to front companies controlled by Salazar, who is Dijkhuisen's cousin, and members of his family.

"There is solid evidence of a close relationship between Salazar and Dijkhuisen, and of Salazar's involvement in laundering assets derived from drug trafficking. That's why we charged him, his wife Pilar Tam, his father William Salazar Cáceres, and his brothers Hebert, Hernán and William Salazar Paredes," prosecutor Ana María Ley told IPS.

Drug traffickers are being released from prison in several parts of the country by judges who are suspected of accepting bribes. On Jan. 30, Judge Pedro Pablo Cornejo in Lambayeque, in the north of Peru, freed three members of a drug trafficking ring, recently sentenced to 25 years in prison, after they appeared before him under a writ of habeas corpus.

The three, brothers Robert and Nelson Díaz, and Napoleón Zamora, had been tried and convicted of storing 3.5 tons of cocaine, discovered when it was on the point of being shipped to Mexico in 1995. They belonged to the "Los Norteños" drug cartel, one of the most powerful in the country.

Also on Jan. 30, Mexican citizen Miguel Ángel Morales was sentenced to nine years in prison for his links with a group that, according to the Mexican Tijuana cartel, was preparing to export 1.7 tons of cocaine in 2002. Less than four weeks after he was sentenced, Judge Iván Torres ordered his release under a writ of habeas corpus.

But this time, authorities at the Miguel Castro prison, where Morales was incarcerated, alerted the justice authorities to the suspicious order, which was countermanded.

"In Morales' case we were lucky enough to be warned in time, but this was exceptional," anti-drug prosecutor for the Interior Ministry Sonia Medina told IPS. "Very often the judges fail to inform my office of their decisions, and this prevents me from doing my job."

According to statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in the last four years cocaine production in Peru has increased dramatically. In 2005, the country's potential cocaine production was reported at 180 tons.

Head of the National Commission for Development and Life Without Drugs (DEVIDA) Rómulo Pizarro told IPS that the big Mexican cartels have started operating in Peru, and as a result, illicit drug exports have increased.

However, the Alan García administration has not taken any extraordinary measures to deal with the rise in drug trafficking. Quite the reverse: it closed down the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in charge of detecting illegal asset laundering, especially of drug-related money.

In the place of the FIU, which had administrative and financial independence, the government created an office within the Economy Ministry.

The FIU was part of the Egmont Group, a network of similar units in 100 countries, from which Peru is likely to be expelled now that it lacks its autonomous FIU.

According to prosecutor Medina, "there is no political will to combat drug trafficking."

"The instances of people being illegally released from prison are yet another sign that organised crime in Peru is growing more powerful every day. Unfortunately, I have to say that its influence has reached the judicial branch," she said.

Peru is the second largest producer of cocaine in the world, after Colombia. But there is only one anti-drug prosecutor, Medina. In 2000 she handled 3,757 judicial cases, compared to 6,927 in 2006.

"The number of drug trafficking cases has increased by more than 30 percent in five years," said Medina, who has reported many death threats against her. "The drug traffickers feel themselves to be more invincible than ever," she added.