Center News: Vladimir Ceron and Waldemar Ceron ask to be charged with criminal organization and protected by the law they advocated | Peru | Criminal Organizations | Judiciary | Prosecutor’s Office | Policy

This rule was invoked within the framework of the procedure followed in the case of Los Dináticos del Centro, of which Waldemar Cerrón was the main author, approved by Congress during the administration of Alejandro Soto and promulgated by Eduardo Salhuana during his presidency at his insistence. .

The law defines the typical characteristics of a criminal organization and stipulates a series of requirements for establishing such a criminal organization and the severity of penalties.

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For example, it states that any group with a “complex structure, high level of development, strong operational capacity” and “transnational” scope will be considered a criminal organization and included in the criminal network when it “causes death”. Among other requirements, when the penalty is “not less than fifteen years and not more than twenty years’ imprisonment” and when other included crimes are classified as “serious” and punishable by more than six years’ imprisonment.

It is recalled that Vladimir Cerrón was included in the tax investigation in July 2021 for suspected criminal organization and influence peddling crimes, when he was accused of being the head of a criminal organization called “Los Dynamicos del Centro” that would be in the regional government of Junín; and later expanded to a national level.

Councillor Waldemar Cerrón was charged with membership in the same criminal network.

According to the tax argument, Los Dynamicos del Centro would have operated between January 2019 and June 2021, committing various criminal acts. Among them, it is noteworthy that officials and staff close to the Liberal Party of Peru, working in the Transport and Communications Directorate of the Junín Regional Government, could have sought to obtain illegal profits in exchange for support and/or guidance in the processing and issuance of different categories of licenses.

Another fact pointed out was the hiring of people close to the party in irregular selection processes and the third fact was related to various selection processes in engineering or road maintenance.

Theron brothers ask for exception to inadmissible lawsuits

In this context, last Thursday, Arturo Silva Rojas, the defense attorney for Vladimir Ceron and Waldemar Ceron, submitted two briefs to Judge Jorge Chavez Tamariz, filing two appeals for non-acceptance, seeking the charge of criminal organization against the two defendants.

These are file No. 33178-2024, concerning the appeal of the inadmissibility exception of the proceedings in favor of Waldemar Cerrón, and file No. 33176-2024, which requests the filing of the proceedings against Vladimir Cerrón through another appeal of the inadmissibility exception of the action, also for the same crime.

It should be noted that the exception to the inadmissibility of proceedings is a defence resource against criminal proceedings and applies when the reported facts do not constitute a crime or are not subject to criminal prosecution.

Along these lines, according to the legal defense of the two defendants, the Ceron Rojas brothers should benefit from the prosecution of the said crime pursuant to the recent Law No. 32108.

Furthermore, he points out that in the case of Waldemar Cerrón he was only investigated for suspected involvement in organized crime, which is all the more reason to exclude him from the investigative process in his case when the offence was brought.

“My two patron clients, Vladimir Cerrón and Waldemar Cerrón, are involved under the regulations of 2021 and 2022. And, regarding the case of Dr. Waldemar Cerrón; from there the exception can be inferred, because there is an important question to consider, Your Honor. A week ago, through Law 32108, the definition and criteria for the existence of a criminal organization currently under investigation regarding my two clients were modified; as for Dr. Waldemar Cerrón, it is the only allegation, criminal organization. Therefore, if we determine this and the conditions established thereby (law); and they must apply to this case, my sponsor Waldemar Cerrón should not be involved in this investigation.”

Arturo Silva Rojas, Lawyers for Vladimir Theron and Waldemar Theron.

Judge Jorge Chavez Tamariz, at the request of the Cerrone brothers’ defenders, ordered the creation of an accompanying notebook to indicate the dates and times of the analysis of the details of the respective appeals, in which the exception to the inadmissibility of the proceedings was made, in addition to the request for the criminal organization’s criminal dossier.

“This document states that you are seeking to submit this procedure by way of the exception to the inadmissibility of proceedings (against Waldemar Cerrón). We will take this opportunity to produce the notebook of events that we discussed today in order to resolve this document request for your client, Waldemar Cerrón. In another article, he also asks for the same thing, namely the process document (written by Vladimir Cerrón). Just ask about the criminal organization. Similarly, a new notebook will be generated,” said the judge.

El Comercio sought Congressman Waldemar Cerrón’s version; however, he had not responded as of this report’s deadline.

In the case of Vladimir Theron, it is noteworthy that, while he was indicted for crimes related to a criminal organization, he was also indicted in this case for crimes related to influence peddling.

Cerrón Rojas has been at large for 10 months, since October 6, 2023. However, as El Comercio reports, he continues to use his social networks freely and in secret; he even holds virtual meetings.

He is joined by 81 people who have been investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office since 2021.

53 people involved in the case are linked to the criminal organization

Thus, this week, prosecutor Vanessa Díaz, from the Fourth Office of the Superprovincial Public Prosecutor’s Office of Corporations, specialized in official corruption crimes, presented a request to Judge Jorge Chávez Tamariz to extend the preliminary investigation for another 36 months.

He pointed out during the debate that his office is investigating the so-called criminal organization “Los Dináticos del Centro”, which is investigating 82 people, including 53 suspected of criminal organization crimes, 38 suspected of passive bribery, 9 suspected of incompatible negotiation, 9 suspected of simple collusion and 26 suspected of aggravated collusion.

In addition, he pointed out that four of them were suspected of money laundering, two were suspected of abuse of power for personal gain, and the others were suspected of ideological falsehood.

“So, there is no doubt that we are faced with an ongoing investigation into an alleged criminal organisation, but with the added complexity of the number of people involved, the number of crimes being investigated and so on,” he said.

Prosecutors said the network had a “criminal project” to “seek financial gain”

“The prosecutor’s office revealed in different articles known to the pre-trial body and the judiciary that the criminal organization had different criminal projects, all of which were for the economic benefit of the organization and the head of the criminal organization himself.”

Vanessa Diaz, Anti-corruption prosecutor.

In addition, prosecutors stressed that during the investigation in 2021, 318,191 records of communications intercepted pursuant to court orders were received.

Of these, 243,483 corresponded to 23 investigations, of which 114,192 records had been heard by the Office of the Prosecutor.

“This means that, out of these 114,000 emails, the prosecutor’s office found on average more than 1,000 relevant letters relevant to the investigation. And, among these relevant communications, beyond the scope of the discovery of this material; corresponding to its transcription, listening, identification and recognition of interlocutors,” he said.

To that end, he said, along with other pending litigation and any new litigation that may arise, he requested an additional 36-month extension.

In response, Arturo Silva, defense lawyer for Vladimir Ceron Rojas and Waldemar Ceron Rojas, asked that the request to extend the preliminary investigation be declared “without basis.”

He pointed out that while the prosecution explained the proceedings, it insisted that the periods for carrying out these procedures “cannot be cumulative and must be carried out simultaneously”. “Because the prosecutor cannot tell us that she will wait a month to carry out such procedures, and then she will start another four months to carry out other procedures, and then wait another eleven months; of course, they add up to 36 inches, he questioned.

He believes that the tax request is inconsistent with the reasonable period, especially since his clients, the Cerrón brothers, have been under investigation since 2021 in one case and since 2022 in the other.

In addition, he told the judge that he had to consider an assessment of the application of Law No. 32108, which modified the definition of organized crime and assault; that is why he requested an exception to the inadmissibility of the proceedings in order to open a case against Vladimir and Waldemar Theron for the aforementioned crimes.

“I ask for a declaration that the request for an extension is without merit; in any case, if the requirements are met, it cannot be claimed that there are 36, because, as I said, deadlines cannot be cumulative,” he concluded.

In some cases, the defence of the other respondents also required that the extension of the preliminary investigation be refused; in other cases, it was only partially established within the additional 12-month period.