At 9 am on Thursday, different units of the PDI – by order of the Western Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office and with court order emanating from courts – raid 13 homes, including the Transit Department of the municipality of Maipú. All this to achieve the arrest of 12 people linked to the issuance of fraudulent driving licenses attributed to “a network of corruption” that operated in that place.
Of all the detainees, three of them are municipal officials, another three are “client captors” and the rest corresponded to people, mostly foreigners, who obtained driver’s licenses, despite not complying with the requirements required by law and after bribing payments.
But the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office is not there. As prosecutor Sergio Soto reported during the formalization hearing this Friday, the Public Ministry is investigating other municipalities in which the network would have illegally processed the documents that allow vehicles to be handled in the streets of Chile; In an edge that also involves the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), as revealed in audience.
For now, the Prosecutor’s Office has been able to determine that the organization began operating at least since 2023, In the first period of the current mayor of Maipú, Tomás Vodanovic. The latter, in any case, denounced the facts after the Public Ministry already carried out a complete stealth investigation.
And despite the fact that when he reported the raids in the municipality – through his Twitter account – he pointed out that the facts came from the previous administration (from Mayor Cathy Barriga), Only an antecedent exposed at the audience would realize thatsince the rest of the testimonies place the beginning of activities of this “fraud company” two years ago.
In the line that seeks to highlight the administration of Vodanovic is the testimony of one of the accused, who affirmed that the mechanism to obtain licenses began operating – according to the belly administration, and that even who was known as his right way, Luis Japaz“I had people to get license.”
In that line, The Municipality of Maipú complained in the case in 2023 and during Thursday’s hearing they were present as complainants.
The mechanism
In 2022, the West Prosecutor was investigating Rodrigo Figueroa by drug trafficking. In that investigation, the researchers intervened and seized the accused team and could not only obtain valuable evidence for that investigation, but also opened a cause of corruption: driving licenses obtained fraudulently.
And it is that Figueroa, according to what they could obtain from their team, also worked as a “collector” room of customers who could not – for different legal reasons – to obtain a driver’s license on a regular basis, for which He helped them contact officials of the Municipality of Maipú, who facilitated the obtaining of hours to take the exam, falsified documents and even did the theoretical test by the “drivers.”
For all this diligence The organization charged between $ 400 thousand to Chileans and $ 900 thousand to foreigners. The latter because the benefit of migrants meant a greater difficulty, since, in addition to obtaining the time, they also had to falsify more documents and even test them because, by language, many times the alleged conductors did not understand.
With that mechanism, and according to the Prosecutor’s Office, The organization only in 2024 delivered 100 irregular driving licenseswith millionaire profits that were divided between the captors and the three officials involved.
From the director to the reviewer
From the pandemic, the difficulty in getting an hour to obtain a driver’s license has increased. Given this problem, which extends in all municipalities, this “criminal network” – as defined by the Prosecutor’s Office – saw a “niche” to get resources.
For this reason, one of the subjects reported before the Prosecutor’s Office – and according to the Public Ministry during the Hearing – that one of the captors, taking advantage of the fact that he knew an official, began to carry out the “business”, with which he operated with two other people.
In this way they achieved that Ruth Necul –Who was with total house arrest given a medical condition–, Chief (s) of the Licencies Department, created “a parallel list” of people who expected to obtain their license, giving a week to the “clients” of the captors. Naculiar of the municipality since 2016 and its current position began to occupy it since January 2024.
But that was not the only benefit they delivered, because another official, Juan Pablo Zúñigawho was the one who took the theoretical exams, and knowing who the people were brought by the captors, helped respond in the computer system and thus obtain the correct answers. Another municipal worker, Manuel Vilcheswho participated in the practical test process, also collaborated.
In the investigation, in addition, other municipal officials were mentioned, as well as people who obtained fraudulent driving licenses; subjects against whom the prosecution will continue the track And that, like the rest, they are also expected to formalize.
The certificates
A few weeks ago, PDI officials, knowing that one of the captors would meet with an official, did follow -up work. Faced with the detectives, the subjects delivered one of the elements that are a requirement to obtain driving licenses: The Certificate of Studies.
These documents, which certify the required basic education, were mostly delivered to foreigners, who could not prove their studies in their country of origin. But not only that: the band also helped people who for medical reasons could not access the document.
This Thursday, with the raids carried out by the PDI, the Prosecutor’s Office was able to access the files of the hundreds of people to whom the organization delivered licenses, as well as the documents that attached so that the Municipality of Maipú would be granted.
In that sense, the researchers found the education certificates, but they also warned that a new edge must be opened. And it is that the documents, according to the prosecutor, They were “lawful” since they had a QR code issued by the Ministry of Education that certified their legalityor at least they appeared that.
However, and knowing the real origin of that, the Prosecutor’s Office informed the Court that it also needs a deadline to investigate how these assumptions of study, “legally”, from the Mineduc were obtained.
At the hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office also specified that some certificates, according to a statement, were falsified with the help of a foreign citizen.
During the discussion about research deadlines, The Public Ministry also said that it should investigate other municipalities that were mentioned by the accused in their statements and where fraudulent licenses would also have obtained.
The Methodical “Bubu Bear”
Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office and the PDI carried out the raids, in homes and the municipality, to disrupt the organization. Thus they arrived at the house of Paula Catalanone of the collectors, who in his home had a transcendental evidence for the Public Ministry.
It is an agenda – as she defined it – of the “oso Powder” where he had a list with the people who “hired their service.” In this notebook the woman not only placed the name of the people, but also how much they should pay and – with acronym – what they were looking for: “h” in case they wanted an hour, “P” for paid and “t” in case they wanted to pass the theoretical exam.
This methodical element It allowed him to distinguish the prosecution of 80 peoplewhile on the phone of another of the captors 100 card photos were found of identity of people who would have requested their license fraudulently.
In addition, another test of the tests that already had knowledge was also in sight of the researchers: on the woman’s phone was an Instagram account – and as she later confessed – where she offered the driver’s licenses and where she presented “testimonies” of buyers.
The Prosecutor’s Office, which will investigate everything obtained, could also determine – because of bank secrecy – that only for 2024 one of the captors obtained $ 3,850,000.
Until the closing of this edition, the band formalization hearing continued, but the Prosecutor’s Office already requested preventive detention for the three municipal officials and the other three “captors”.
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