Last Friday, June 14, 9 active gendarmes and one retired They were arrested in a large police operation in the regions of Coquimbo, Metropolitana and O’Higgins, for their alleged participation in a weapons trafficking network inside five prisons in the country.
A fact that shakes the institution of Gendarmerie, but it would not be the only case of corruption among the entity’s officials.
THE LAST
That is why the Mega Investiga team decided to investigate a series of complaints against gendarmes who were being controlled by organized crime within the high security prisons that exist in the country.
Gendarme denounces that the Santiago 1 prison is taken over by organized crime
A active Gendarmerie officerwho has been in the institution for 13 years, spoke with the Mega Investiga team and denounced the acts of corruption by different officials of the institution.
The first thing he pointed out is that the most important prison in the capital, the Santiago 1 prisonwould be taken over by organized crime, which would have control of the prison facility.
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Most of them would be bands of drug traffickers, kidnappers, Aragua Train groups and Colombian gangs who have entered the country recently, according to the complainant gendarme, who remained anonymous. “They arrive with the purchasing power of what their illicit sale left them, they come to prison with a lot of power“, he assures.
Currently, the Santiago 1 Penitentiary houses about 5,000 inmates, although its capacity is for 4,000. The complaining Gendarmerie officer says that the most dangerous criminals in the country are in that prison and that many of them continue to operate inside.
Likewise, he comments that the gendarmes themselves They seek to convince new inmates to sell them cell phones. Then these officials meet with the prisoner’s family, pay him the money and the gendarmes end up passing the device to the prisoner.
Criminals “buy” corrupt gendarmes
According to the complaint made by the Gendarmerie officer, the inmates have “bought” some gendarmes to bring prohibited items into the prison. “A lot of money moves, there are officials who earn $300,000 daily for bringing in drugs and cell phones“, details the gendarme.
Others do not enter anything, but turn a blind eye when elements that fall into the yard are thrown from outside, the well-known “balls.” The complainant explains that corrupt gendarmes can receive up to $100,000 for each hit with drugs, weapons or cell phones that arrives
A second complainant gendarme, who does not know the other official, spoke with Mega Investiga and corroborated the corruption in the institution by ensuring that the gangs recruit more gendarmes every day.
“They take advantage of officials who have financial or health problems. There are many ways for inmates to reach officials and there is really no care on the part of the institution regarding those same issues,” he says.
Why don’t they report acts of corruption within the Gendarmerie?
The first complainant official assures that the penitentiary intelligence gendarmes who investigate corruption inside Santiago 1 have been threatened with death by their own colleagues: “Right now I am more afraid of corrupt officials than of organized gang inmates.“he assured.
“When an official is doing his job well and they want to get him out of the way, (the corrupt gendarmes) speak outwards with organized gangs and They follow them and threaten to kill them.“, complements the complainant.
On February 21, 2023, a gendarme from Santiago 1 who was secretly investigating illegal acts committed by his colleagues, found a paper in his locker in which he and his family were threatened with death with a message that said: “Pako toad watch your back and your family toad perkin (sic).”
As detailed by the reporting gendarme in this report, only gendarmes could enter that area. “He tried to ask for help, our leadership, our director, the colonels did nothing“, he reveals. The threatened person reported the facts to the Public Ministry and requested a prison transfer, which was denied by his leadership.
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