Leandro Norero and journalist Andersson Boscán talked about customs corruption. The first offered information from a prosecutor.
Leandro Norero (red) upon entering the Cotopaxi Detention Center.
The scandal over the disclosure of the conversations of drug trafficker Leandro Norero, from his cell in Latacunga, does not end. In one of the chats exposed by the Prosecutor’s Office, the interlocutor is Andersson Boscán , journalist for the digital media La Posta.
One of the conversations that the Prosecutor’s Office has, between Boscán and Norero, is from July 30, 2022. The journalist told him that he was doing an investigation related to Customs and Petroecuador.
Then, Norero offered him help and assured him that if he needed anything he would let him know so that he could ” turn on his ears everywhere.”
Andersson Boscán took him at his word and told him: ” If your people know something about customs, luxury. I am behind the political part. Carola Ríos, Eljuri, Minister Fabián Pozo .”
The journalist even clarified that he was not interested in reporting on “smuggling and drugs. ” To which Norero responded that he was going to look for information.
Customs corruption
While obtaining information about customs, Norero offered Boscán information about the Manta Port Terminal, the Manabí Government and the Manabí National Electricity Corporation (CNEL).
The journalist responded affirmatively, but stressed that he was interested in the customs people, ” Fabián Pozo or Aparicio Caicedo“, then officials of Guillermo Lasso’s government.
And at that moment, Norero assured him that he would have the information in eight days. “I have a prosecutor out there who knows all the scams.”
Two days later, on August 1, 2022, Andersson Boscán and Norero spoke again. And once again the drug trafficker offered him the information: ” well done, with details and everything, with papers and everything .”
The following conversation occurred on August 18. And the journalist insisted: ” you owed me information on that note .” Norero responded that he had forgotten, but that at that moment he would write to his friend, the attorney.
In these days, Fernando Villavicencio, then president of the Oversight Commission, denounced that Norero together with Xavier J., with whom Norero also chatted, were at the head of customs corruption.
But Norero denied that information before Boscán. ” I swear on the life of my children, never fear customs,” the boss wrote. The journalist reminded him that he was awaiting the information offered and Norero ratified his commitment.
The Danube, Boscán and Norero case
By these days, La Posta, the media outlet of the journalist involved, had already published information based on leaked audios about what is now known as the Danube Case. A criminal structure that sold positions at Customs. One person was sentenced after accepting his guilt.
Then, Villavicencio summoned Andersson Boscán to the Oversight Commission. In that quote, the journalist presented the table in which Xavier J. and Norero were mentioned as the alleged leaders of customs corruption.
But, before that statement was made in public, Norero already knew that was going to happen. “I’m going to say that if you and Xavier J. control Customs, as the Government says, it is because an official had to give it to you,” the journalist told the drug trafficker minutes before his appearance.
According to the chats published by the Prosecutor’s Office, the information from Norero to Boscán through Customs was not finalized. Although, the journalist did receive data on other topics such as operations, criminal violence and prison crisis.
Given this controversy, Luis Vivanco, Boscán’s partner at La Posta, assured in And he added that “to know what the bad guys do, you have to talk to the bad guys, not to the nuns of charity.”
The morning after the revelation, on his daily program, Boscán referred to the issue. The journalist defended the interactions with the drug trafficker as an investigation technique. He even assured that he had already said that he had conversations with Norero.
