Traffic Cop And His Girlfriend Arrested For
"Fixing" Traffic Tickets
Fixing traffic tickets has cost a traffic
official and a secretary at the Consejo de
Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) their jobs and now
face criminal charges, following an
investigation by the Unidad de Delitos
Varios del Organismo de Investigación
Judicial (OIJ).
The Friday afternoon arrest of the two was
an example of the cleaning up of corruption
within the Policía de Tránsito (traffic
police) force and transit officials at the
Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT).
The investigation led authorities to the
pair after it was learned that the traffic
official identidied only his last name,
Vargas, and the woman would accept bribes in
return to erase traffic tickets.
The pair are alleged to charge between
¢100.000 and ¢150.000 colones and offered
the service mainly to taxi drivers and
porteadores (informal taxis or gypsy cabs).
Investigators also learned that the pair
were romantically involved and that it was
the traffic official who decided who which
bribe would be accepted and tickets erased
from the Cosevi computer system.
To get a ticket erased was simply a matter
of contacting the traffic official, who in
turn would give the person the number of his
girlfriend who would instruct the caller to
make a deposit into a specific bank account.
With the deposit made, the tickets would
simply disappear.
The Ministerio Público said the
investigation had been ongoing since 2007,
as the pair also charged "mordidas" (bribes)
for other services, like fudging the driving
test and avoiding long lines at the Cosevi.
The pair face a prison term of two to eight
years if convicted. Article 348 of the
Código Penal (Penal Code) sanctions any
public official for abuse of his or
authority.
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