Cablegate: Police Make Arrests in Wiretap Scandal

VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #3455 3312217
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 272217Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1265
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0269
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO
RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 003455

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/27
TAGS: PREL PGOV KCRM CO
SUBJECT: POLICE MAKE ARRESTS IN WIRETAP SCANDAL

REF: BOGOTA 3185 AND PREVIOUS

CLASSIFIED BY: Mark Wells, Political Counselor; REASON: 1.4(B), (D)

(C) On November 26, the Colombian National Police, with support of
the DEA Bogota Country Office, arrested three individuals and were
looking for a fourth in connection with the wiretaps scandal
(reftel). The four suspects were OswaldoVillamilTorralba, Ferney
Galvis Garcia, Aldo Francisco PerezYosa, and Edwin Nicolas Acuna
Chitiva.AcunaChitiva remains at large. The four are accused of
using the legal wire intercept system known as Esperanza to
illegally tap the phone of Supreme Court Auxiliary Magistrate Ivan
Velazquez, who was leading the "parapolitica" investigation of ties
between paramilitaries and the Colombian Congress. Investigators
believe that Villamil, a Colombia National Police (CNP) official
who had worked in an Esperanza listening room, had conspired with
his longtime neighbor Perez, an official at the National Technical
Corps (CTI, the Prosecutor General's judicial police force), to
intercept Velazquez' phone. Villamil allegedly bribed CNP official
Galvis to carry out the intercepts in the listening room.Galvis
had to involve his CNP supervisor, Acuna, in the process. Galvis,
Acuna, and Perez signed the official order that piggybacked
Velazquez' number onto a wiretaps in a legitimate investigation.
Police investigators believed these arrests would unearth new
information about the purpose of intercepts and who ordered them.
BROWNFIELD

© Scoop Media