A total of 98 alleged members of the Tonalá police force, a municipality on the coast of Chiapas, were arrested for the crime of usurpation of public functions and whatever else, committed against society, reported the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
It explained that those arrested could not prove their role as police officers, with any credential or document that identifies them as such.
In a statement, it indicated that they were arrested in an institutional operation to verify weapons and the facilities of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat of Tonalá, carried out on Friday.
It added that there are three pseudo-officers detained who were found to have firearms; two are under investigation because, in the review of their personal telephone equipment, it was noted that they had communication to alert criminal groups about the presence of checkpoints.
The prosecutor’s office stressed that it opened the corresponding investigations and activated the necessary protocols, where a multidisciplinary group is working on obtaining evidence that proves the participation of the accused in the acts attributed to them, in order to determine their legal situation.
Meanwhile, sources from the FGE said that the process against the uniformed officers will be carried out in Tonalá, in charge of the Istmo-Costa district attorney’s office. They commented that the legal term expires today at 1:00 p.m., so at that time it will be known how many will be linked to the process and how many will be freed of charges. They specified that the Tonalá police officers are under investigation; meanwhile, the surveillance of that place is in charge of elements of the state Secretariat of Public Security (SSP).
The FGE, headed by Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, detailed that elements of that institution, of the Secretariats of National Defense (Defense) and of the SSP participate in the operations, among them members of the Pakal Immediate Reaction Force.
To date, 359 municipal and traffic police officers have been arrested in various operations – most of them with the participation of federal and state security forces – in Comitán (93), Chiapa de Corzo (89), Villaflores (39), Villa Corzo (25), Tuxtla Gutiérrez (9), Bochil (4) and San Cristóbal de Las Casas (2). Of those 359, according to sources, 88 have been brought to trial and the rest were released.
The operations to arrest and investigate police officers from various Chiapas districts began in January, as part of the security strategy of the new state government that took office on December 8.
During roll call they were unable to prove their position
Regarding Tonalá, the sources specified that when the Defense and the commissioner of the SSP took the roll call and checked their weapons, the elements did not carry any document that accredited them as local public security officers and that is why they were put at the disposal of the FGE.
Later, the municipal trustee and the mayor, Manuel Narcia Coutiño, appeared, who verified with the payroll the registration of the uniformed officers, and the collective permit for the service weapons.
From there, the request to control and trust is derived to inform us if they are endorsed by the corresponding authority. Now with the data that we have just received, we are determining who has the function and who does not, added the informant.
On the other hand, the state prosecutor’s office announced that the Investigation Police will now be called the Investigation and Ministerial Intelligence Agency, after the approval of decree 205 by the local Congress.
With this change of name, he added, the institution aims to consolidate the strategy of investigation of crimes in the fight against crime in the state that was implemented by Governor Eduardo Ramírez, in order to eradicate violence and reduce crime rates.
Source: jornada
