12 Police Officials Detained For Corruption,
Including Chief of Policía Metropolitana
A total of 12 police officials, including
the chief of the Policía Metropolitana, were
in the hands of judicial officials
yesterday, all accused for taking money from
criminals in exchange for favours.
Police chief Carlos León Retana is alleged
to have headed the group of officials for
more than 400 “cobronazos", according to the
director of the Organismo de Investigación
Judicial (OIJ) - judicial police - Jorge
Rojas.
The OIJ investigation labeled "manos sucias"
(dirty hands) ended with the arrest of the
12 police officials and the naming of 77
other police officials in the OIJ report.
Rojas explained that it would have caused a
nightmare in the Fiscalía (prosecutor's
office) if the OIJ had arrested everyone
named in the report at one time, for such
the arrests began in stages.
León is a career police officer with 19
years on the job. However, he was not the
only high ranking officer, he is joined by
Policía Metropolitana Norte and the chief of
the Caribbean police delegation, both
identified only by their last names, Serrano
and Calderón, respectively.
Most of the officials arrested on Wednesday
by the OIJ held rank in the police force.
The Policía Metropolitana unit is made up of
350 officers who patrol the downtown core of
San José. The OIJ report indicates that one
out of every four officers of the unit are
corrupt.
The investigation began the middle of last
year when rumours began that certain police
officers were accepting bribes from local
criminals to let them go, according to the
ministra de Seguridad, Janina Del Vecchio.
A number of complaints were received against
the officers which led the investigation to
move ahead. Using undercover agents, the OIJ,
confirmed that the rumours were in fact real
and that local police officials were
demanding bribes from criminals.
The evidence against the accused include
video of police officials telling criminals
to go about their activities with
tranquility after making their payment, as
well as evidence of drugs confiscated being
resold by police officials.
The OIJ report shows that in some cases
police officials were charging as low as
¢2.000 colones (less than us$4) to let a
criminal go, and up to ¢200.000 colones to
illicit businesses in the downtown core.
The ministera de Seguridad said that so far
this year there have been 120 complaints of
police corruption filed with her office and
that up to five officers a week have been
fired.
As to the Manos Sucias investigation,
although only 12 were arrested, director
Rojas assures that more arrests are pending.
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