PRESS RELEASE 024
CAPITÁN CASE ARRESTS
Guatemala, March 30, 2012. Today, the National Civil Police, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP), the Ministry of the Interior and staff from CICIG arrested Ana Sofía Castañeda Deras at the Port of San José for conspiracy to interfere with the course of justice. They also arrested Luis Arturo Méndez Martínez at the La Pradera Shopping Center in Zone 10 of the capital and Julio César Lopez Herrera in La Laguna, Kilometer 47 of the highway leading to El Salvador, for the crimes of conspiracy to interfere with the course of justice and conspiracy to commit murder.
Court B for High-Risk Matters issued the arrest warrants.
Background facts:
On February 11, 2011, Oscar Ricardo Guzmán Berreondo, Navy Commander of the Guatemalan Army, was murdered. Guzmán was working as Chief of Staff of the Southern Command at the Pacific Naval Base.
The investigation, which was conducted to shed light on the murder, established that Commander Guzmán was the leader of a criminal group involved with drug trafficking and money laundering, and that the arrested parties formed part of this group.
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