Judicial police arrest 70 suspects in alleged driver’s license fraud scheme

Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) on Wednesday morning arrested 70 people suspected of fraudulently obtaining driver’s licenses. The arrests took place during several raids conducted simultaneously across the country.

Agents also arrested two officials from the Driver’s License Department and two “gavilanes,” or people who help facilitate the process.

At 10:30 a.m., OIJ officers raided a private doctor’s practice located just two blocks from the Roadway Safety Council in La Uruca, where physicals allegedly were been sold.

In the afternoon, Chief Public Defender Marta Iris Muñoz said the “mass arrests ​​by OIJ agents this morning violate human rights.”

She said the defendants were being held in a single room in a San José court detention center. “The room is overcrowded, this is outrageous,” she told the daily La Nación.

Muñoz also alleged that OIJ officers did not allow public defenders to meet with those who were arrested.

According to the a report issued by the Prosecutor’s Office, a total of 95 suspects have been identified as allegedly participating in the scheme.