Carlos Tuárez’s Network operated from a hotel in Quito
The investigation carried out on the criminal group apparently led by Carlos Tuárez, former president of the Participation Council, gives more details. 49 days after the capture of 33 people, the information collected by the Prosecutor’s Office shows that the apprehended set up a complex network to charge those who were interested in occupying a public position .
According to the investigations , the suspects rented a room in a hotel in Quito and there they launched their criminal operation . Agents say those interested in the charges were contacted through phone calls and instructed to arrive at the hotel on a specific day and time and deliver the cash.
The day Tuárez and the rest were arrested, the Prosecutor’s Office said they were asking for up to USD 20 million for a charge in Customs or civil aviation .
From the evidence collected, the Prosecutor’s Office knows that those interested entered with the money in suitcases and had to wait for new instructions through text messages or calls to cell phones .
The file warns that at one point, a car passed through the hotel, picked up the person who paid for the charge and was taken for possession . While they were on their way to that act, other members of the criminal network entered the hotel room , counted the money in cash and verified if they had canceled everything.
Only if he had met that requirement was he possessed. Otherwise, the operation was falling.
Agents say that this method is known as ‘mirror’, and that they had not seen it in other cases. From the data collected so far it is known that they used it with at least two people seeking managerial positions in the State.
The file goes back to November 28, when 33 people were arrested in an operation in six provinces, which they called Emperor. The file indicates that Tuárez and the rest offered public office .
Today, 27 people, including five women, are being held in custody. The rest (six) is free, but they cannot leave the country and must appear periodically before an authority .
Last Wednesday, four detainees expanded their version in the Ambato Prison.
On the other hand, a hearing will be held on February 3, since nine of the detainees requested that the prison be lifted and other measures imposed on them. But the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that details of how they operated were found in the eavesdropping of the investigated cell phones .
We still have to extract information from other phones , to know if there are more conversations and payments in the hotel or in other facilities . Today, the investigation teams also have in their possession six videos captured with the three processed cell phones .
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, these images show how before going to the hotel, those interested in public office had to film the cash with a newspaper of the day.
Agents say that was proof that at the date the newspaper was circulated, cash was available.
The images even show euros in bills. Once the filming was sent, they were waiting for the call of a collaborator who quoted them at the hotel .
Prosecutors said the investigations do not end; He said there will be more linked . The entity analyzes telephone listeners, bank accounts, videos and other tests. “In the intercepted audios other names of public employees are heard that are now collated. They can be homonyms and we will determine who they are, ”says the entity.
In addition, he warns that in the conversations people with a foreign accent are heard, who would also have participated in the collection of money. For now it is expected to conclude the expertise to know what degree of participation they had in this illegal .
Prosecutors’ suspicions took more weight on January 4. That day, four of the suspects were sentenced after using the abbreviated procedure and accepting their guilt in the facts.
Sebastián Trejo, Marco Vivanco, Pablo Roberto Llanes, and Luis Loyo (former CNE employee) were sentenced to one year in prison as perpetrators of the crime of unlawful association and must pay a fine of four salaries.
In the sentence, the judge accepted the lawyers’ request and ordered that the first three serve their sentence in the Jail 4 of Quito , a center for expoliation and people at risk. He ordered that Trejo serve his sentence in the jail of Guayaquil . The Directorate of Rehabilitation reported that everyone is still in the Main Port , including Tuárez, which has a court order to be transferred to Jail 4.
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