According to the agency, those arrested include four members of the National Police, two agents of the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), and three private citizens who were formerly with the Criminal Investigation Section and the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec).

The Attorney General’s Office added that the accused profitted from their positions and demanded between 400 million and 1 billion pesos (between US$108,000 and US$270,000 at the current exchange rate) from a citizen who had served a sentence in the United States and from his family members.

The demand for money was intended to prevent the imposition of precautionary measures aimed at seizing his assets, to prevent the execution of arrest warrants, and to halt other legal actions against him.

It was also revealed that those allegedly involved in the illicit activities managed to destroy evidence to obstruct the investigation and coerce witnesses into providing false information about the relatives of the man who served time in the United States, in retaliation for their refusal to pay the requested sums.

They are also accused of intimidating one of the lead investigators to gain access to details of the cases they were interested in; for all of this, they will be charged with several crimes.

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