The authorities of El Salvador announced a couple of weeks ago the arrest of 67 Colombians for the crimes of fraud and illicit enrichment at the expense of false microfinance companies and loan modalities known in Colombia as ‘drop by drop’. About, Carlos Rodríguez Bocanegra, Ambassador of Colombia in El Salvador, said that this issue of ‘drop by drop’ is not new in that country and clarified that none of the detainees is related to the Mara, dangerous Salvadoran gangs.
“The issue of Colombians detained abroad comes from a long time ago. In El Salvador, the state of emergency was decreed in March (2022) and as of this date we have 67 people who have been detained in that country and all have been informed to this consular office,” Rodríguez said in dialogue with Time.
The Colombian consul reported that he had a meeting with the prosecutor, the Minister of Justice, the director of Migration and the director of the Police of El Salvador, who clarified that the arrests have to do with a crime called illegal groups, which in Colombia it is known as a conspiracy to commit a crime.
“They denounced that most of these arrests have to do with a modality that in Colombia we know as ‘drop by drop’, that is, none of these people has been arrested and accused of belonging to the maras or gangs that are here in El Salvador”, affirmed Ambassador Rodríguez Bocanegra.
Carlos Rodríguez Bocanegra, Colombian ambassador in El Salvador. Photo: Twitter / Embassy of Colombia in El Salvador
According to the Colombian diplomat, the capture of the 63 people has to do with these crimes associated with money lending and collections, in which they sometimes exerted pressure and violence, taking assets and money from people who did not pay. “As we know in Colombia, this loan is a usury loan,” he said.
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Additionally, Ambassador Carlos Rodríguez indicated that to the 67 Colombians who had recently been detained, there are another 67 who had been captured since 2022, for a total of 110 compatriots confined in the famous jails of El Salvador.
How did they operate?
As of 2021, the Salvadoran authorities were tracking more than 60 Colombians who were part of a criminal network dedicated to money laundering and illegal loans. On July 17, 110 people were captured, including the Colombians investigated, an Argentine, a Guatemalan, and 3 Salvadorans.who were sent to jail for scams through fake microfinance companies.
“From March 2022 to date, the Consular Section has learned of a total of 67 arrests of compatriots investigated for this cause,” said the Colombian Foreign Ministry.
Under the drop-by-drop modality, Colombians lent money in the Central American country Credit: El Salvador Prosecutor’s Office
Colombians came to El Salvador as tourists and settled in the country to set up criminal companies that were not registered with the Salvadoran Superintendence of the Financial System, nor with the Salvadoran Institute for Cooperative Development.
In the modality of “drop by drop” loans that Colombians made, They charged 20% interest, and if people did not pay the money in the agreed time, the percentage increased. If the debt persisted, the criminals collected the money through threats, personal injuries, and even usurped the debtors’ identification to obtain bank loans and credit cards.
According to the El Salvador Prosecutor’s Office, the money withdrawn from bank accounts was sent abroad, mainly to Colombia, where they had transferred more than 20 million dollars in the last three years. In addition, the Attorney General of El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado, indicated that from 2021 to date they have received more than 3,000 complaints for computer scams committed by Colombian citizens in their country.