Police make 15 more arrests in La Plaga corruption case, including two in Cuenca

In a series of Wednesday morning raids, police arrested at least 15 suspects in the Attorney General’s La Plaga corruption investigation. Arrests were made in Cuenca, Guayaquil, Quito, Portoviejo, Manta, Machala and Santo Domingo and included current and former judges, police officers, prison officials, court officials and private practice attorneys.

Police enter a home in Manabí Province to make a Wednesday morning arrest in La Plaga corruption case.

Arrested in Cuenca were Judge Franklin Edmundo T. and private practice attorney Omar Israel J., who previously worked for the national prison system.

Also among those detained was former judge Simón García, who released Daniel Salcedo in December 2022 while he served in the Judicial Unit of Manabí Province. Salcedo, accused of defrauding public hospitals of millions of dollars, was an associate of Leandro Norero, alias El Patron, the focus of the Metastasis corruption case.

Another judge, Ángel Lindao Vera, who granted “protective action” to Norero in 2022, was also arrested.

According to the Attorney General’s office, those arrested were “participants in crimes in the judicial system in which convicts were released from prison in exchange for money or other favors.” In the cases of prison officials and police officers, prosecutors said guns, ammunition, cell phones, drugs and other prohibited items were delivered to inmates in return for payment.

The new arrests brings to 27 those accused in the Plaga case, which was based in the offices of the Guayas Province court system.