PRESS RELEASE 078
JUDGE LINKS THREE MORE TO PROCEEDINGS FOR FUEL SMUGGLING
Guatemala, October 3, 2012. Today, Erick Estuardo Lucas Díaz (Deputy Inspector of the National Civil Police [PNC]), Hilma Nohemí Pineda Álvarez (customs specialist for the Superintendence of Tax Administration [SAT]) and Willian Estuardo Lemus Ramírez (former SAT employee) were linked to proceedings and remanded in custody by order of Court B of the First Criminal Instance for High-risk Matters. The trio are allegedly linked to a criminal organization involved in fuel trafficking since 2008 (Gasofa Case).
At the initial appearance, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez deemed there to be enough rational evidence against the accused parties. Therefore, Lucas Díaz was linked to proceedings on charges of criminal association, customs fraud and interfering with the course of justice and Pineda Álvarez and Lemus Ramírez face charges of criminal association and customs fraud.
At the proceedings, recordings were presented of telephone taps that the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) had conducted during the case investigation. These recordings offered evidence of the coordination that had taken place between the alleged members of the criminal structure for the purposes of smuggling gasoline and blocking investigations.
The investigations determined that Lemus Ramírez received orders from Marvin Delfino Barrios Marchena (currently linked to proceedings), the head of the group, and then coordinated with Pineda Álvarez, who prepared the fake supporting documents at the SAT at the Pedro de Alvarado customs checkpoint. Lucas Díaz used his position in the Police to block the MP investigation supported by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).
CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor in this criminal proceeding.