The gang that was dismantled on Wednesday was involved in a tax-evasion crime by an Italian ice-cream manufacturer named Rainis.
The foreigner contacted the gang because he wanted to import 11 freezers valued in $40 thousand each, but did not want to pay the taxes.
Rainis owns an ice-cream shop located in Playas del Coco in Guanacaste, which offers the typical “gelati”.
Apparently, the criminal organization recruited five customs officers to omit the controls in favor of the importation made by the Italian.
The group was led by three subjects, including two foreigners, who had the support of public accountants, lawyers, notaries and businessmen.
The investigation began in 2014, when a small group of notaries who identified themselves as ‘Los Larios’ was investigated for the crime of making fictitious transfers in the Public Registry using false documents or fake identities.
What did they do? They stripped Costa Ricans and foreigners of high-value properties, through the falsification of documents in the Public Registry and successive transfers.
How did they do it? To that end, they studied the victims, reviewed their migratory movements and verified whether the lands did not report recent registration activity.
How did they operate? The group provided false financial profiles to the ‘fronts’ (collaborators), to obtain bank and financial loans in different entities.
They are now being prosecuted for more than 40 alleged crimes including fraud with properties, loans, credit cards and luxury vehicles that they transferred to a criminal organization in Panama.
Some of the 39 suspects arrested are a manager of the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR), a manager of a luxury vehicle agency and five customs officials.
What did the manager of the BCR do? He was a contributor to the group and facilitated access to databases, to know if the person they would use on the fake document was eligible for a loan.