'Call center' of crime: 300 people from a gang that extorts in South America are captured

Some 300 people were arrested this Friday in Lima in a large operation carried out by the National Police of Peru (PNP) and the Public Ministry against an alleged criminal organization dedicated to the crime of extortion throughout South America, official sources reported.

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“This is a fairly large number of people who will be investigated. So far, an average of 300 people have been detained,” PNP Commander General Jorge Angulo told reporters.

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The police chief said that The operation allowed intervention in “an unprecedented information management center” and that it is “a criminal organization that has an impact at the South American level.”.

“We are talking about a criminal organization that recruits people here to work in this 'call center', in a communications center, where Peruvian and foreign citizens, especially from neighboring countries, can be extorted through calls and messages,” he indicated. .

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He added that The illicit activity “could involve around 7,000 people being extorted under different modalities, through (social) networks, cell phones or other communication mechanisms.”.

The Prosecutor's Office detailed, for its part, that the operation was carried out in three properties located in the districts of Lince, San Isidro and Cercado de Lima, and allowed the arrest of 13 alleged leaders of the criminal gang, including its top leader.

In addition, chips from cell phones, mobile equipment, computer hard drives, laptops and other electronic equipment were seized.

The Third Office of the First Provincial Criminal Corporate Prosecutor's Office maintains that this organization extorted citizens through telephone calls and threatening messages, after having lent them money through a mobile application, he added.

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Local media showed the large police deployment that was carried out from noon this Friday to enter several buildings in the Peruvian capital, where Dozens of people were intervened and taken in buses to the police stations, where they remain..

Agents from the Kidnapping Investigation Division and the High Technology Investigation Division, as well as members of the PNP special forces, participated in the operation.

Dozens of parents of detained young people arrived at the place where the communication centers operated and indicated that their children were not participating in illicit activities and only made calls to collect loans.

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“My 29-year-old daughter was intervened. She was simply collecting money. They are employees. The ones they have to capture are the owners of those call centers,” one of the mothers told the newspaper. The Republic.

Another parent said The company appeared to be legal and even carried out a selection process that included the presentation of criminal records of the workers.which considered that they are innocent and only made collection calls like those made by other companies in the financial system.

EFE