Four Bolivian police officers investigated for theft of suitcases in Marset arrest
Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office accuses four police agents of stealing suitcases from the home where Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset was detained on 13 March.
Public Prosecutor's Office charges high-ranking police officials over suitcases missing after Marset arrest
Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal investigation against four police officers for the alleged theft of suitcases—possibly containing money—found at the residence where Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset was captured on 13 March in Santa Cruz, according to ultimahora.com.
The case prosecutor, Gabriel Gutiérrez, explained in a press conference that "it has been possible to establish with certainty" that three superior officers supervised the raid: the then national director of Police Intelligence, Oscar Moreno; the national head of Counterintelligence, Juan Marcelo Ferrufino, and Lieutenant Colonel Erick Correa. A captain, whose identity was not disclosed, participated directly in the operation and was identified as "one of the individuals who removed one of the suitcases" from the property.
The opening of the case came following the release of images from a security camera in which, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, several agents removed four suitcases from the location. Gutiérrez noted that the investigation seeks to determine "what these suitcases contained and also a safe, and what the final destination of these objects has been". The main hypothesis points to the packages containing "large sums of money" that were not registered in the official report of the operation.
The four police officers face charges of embezzlement, dereliction of duty, theft, extortion and passive bribery.
Arrests and fugitives
A judge ordered the preventive detention of Ferrufino on Sunday for six months in a prison on the Bolivian altiplano. The captain was arrested on Monday in Sucre and transferred to La Paz, where he awaits his bail hearing. Arrest warrants are outstanding against Moreno and Correa; the latter declared himself a fugitive. Gutiérrez confirmed that migration alerts have already been activated against both men, and that authorities believe they still remain in Bolivian territory.
Interim Attorney General José Armando Urioste told UNO network that the case "must be investigated clearly", including the chain of custody from Marset's capture until his transfer to the United States.
Government reaction
Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz considered that criticisms of the Police could be an "attack" against his Government, in light of recent blows against organised crime: the detention of Marset, the imprisonment of former Attorney General Roger Mariaca—removed from office for allegedly collaborating with the Uruguayan's network—and the recent arrest of a leader of the Brazilian criminal group Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).
Marset was detained in a night-time operation on 13 March in Santa Cruz and subsequently extradited to the United States, where he remains in federal custody.
Source: Google News BO — Crime