Police Officer and His Mother Arrested for Extortion and Illegal Weapons Possession in Tumbes
A PNP non-commissioned officer and his mother were arrested in Tumbes on Friday, 11 September, in an operation targeting aggravated extortion and illegal weapons possession.
Operation in Tumbes Results in Arrest of PNP Non-Commissioned Officer and His Mother
A non-commissioned officer of the Peruvian National Police and his mother were detained on Friday, 11 September, in Tumbes, as part of an investigation into alleged aggravated extortion offences, according to infobae.com.
The officer identified as S3 PNP Carlos Handerzon Zárate Bayona, 29 years old, was intercepted at 9:45 in the morning as he was heading to the Tumbes Police Region facilities. Agents from the Kidnappings and Extortion Investigation Unit of the regional Divincri had prior intelligence about his movements.
Judicial Resolution No. 4, issued on 9 September, had ordered his preliminary detention for seven days to determine whether to impose preventive custody.
During the operation, which included the presence of the Public Ministry and public defence, officers seized an iPhone 14, a motorcycle, an ignition key, wireless headphones and 850 soles in cash from the officer's belongings. Zárate Bayona was transferred to the Tumbes Divincri headquarters to continue proceedings.
The non-commissioned officer had a recent record: since 22 July he had been on temporary suspension from service following an intervention for illegal firearm possession, on which occasion he was detained before being released.
In parallel, another group of agents executed a judicial warrant to search a house in the 12 de Setiembre human settlement in the Las Malvinas neighbourhood. On the second level of the property, inside the bedroom of Yaditza de los Ángeles Bayona Albujar, 49 years old and the officer's mother, agents found a firearm together with five cartridges stored in a wardrobe.
The discovery resulted in the woman's arrest in flagrante delicto for the alleged offence against public safety in the form of illegal firearms possession.
"I have proceeded with her detention for the alleged offence against public safety in the form of illegal firearms possession," declared General PNP Luis José Quiroz Dávila, chief of the Tumbes Police Region.
Mother and son were transferred along with the seized items to the Tumbes Divincri facilities, where investigation proceedings continued. Their legal situation will be determined as the fiscal and judicial proceedings advance.
The case comes in a context where the Interior Minister, César Astudillo, requested Congress to take up a legislative proposal that remained unresolved in the previous legislature: imposing life sentences on police officers and military personnel who are members of criminal organisations or participate in the illegal sale of weapons, ammunition or explosives. Before the Commission on National Defence and Internal Order, Astudillo argued that the maximum penalty should apply to officers caught in flagrante delicto as members of criminal gangs or linked to the sale of such material.
Source: Google News PE — Crime