Prosecutor Luis Toledo: "Narcos have real offices within the prison"

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The lawyer Luis Toledo (51) went from being the prosecutor in charge of investigating in 2015 the scandalous caval case, where Sebastián Dávalos, eldest son of President Michelle Bachelet, and his wife, Natalia Compagnon, were involved, to be today the director of theUnit specialized in illicit drug trafficking and psychotropic substances, appointed by the National Prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, in 2016.

-What is worse: influences or drug trafficking?

-The Caval case was very hard.It is better to be on the issue of drugs - he replies, after the initial surprise that the question generates.

On September 7, his unit announced the 2020 report of drug trafficking in Chile, which paints with dark inks the evolution of this crime in the country.Now the prosecutor relieves us the aspects that seem more critical and new in the matter:

“A issue is how the criminal organization has been modified in prisons.Before, in non -concessioned prisons there was no relationship between thieves and traffickers;They were differentiated.The trafficker was very frowned upon and the choro or thief was valued.The choros carried her, it was the living, those who stole;The lonyis were the giles.That has been changing in the last eight, five years.The traffickers have legitimized and now there is an association between those who steal and those who traffic drugs.The latter have established a system of domination on dogs, which are the ones who kill, those who carry weapons, those who assault, kidnap and commit violent crimes.The narco have arranged cells, benefits and better conditions that manage the gendarmes.They are installed in real offices within the penalties and, since they are not violent, it is common for them to get extra prison benefits.This system of domination works both inside the prison and outside, because from within they continue to maintain and strengthen their networks in their territories and neighborhoods ”.

He says that last year, a narco that had Sunday permission, was walking and in a service located a couple of blocks from the prison a great Mercedes Benz with a driver was waiting for him to take him to his population, where he continued to handle his business and everyoneThey knew.

-A priest that supports the moms of the so -called "prisoners of the revolt" said that their greatest concern is that their children are being co -opted by the narcos inside the prison.What knows about that, prosecutor?

-I haven't heard about that.In general, prisoners are scrambled, except those who go to the high security prison.The eighty percent of the criminal population is addicted to drug.I have not heard, but it does not surprise me, because of the experience I have, that young people who are deprived of liberty are linked to drugs;It is almost a matter of survival in a system that is taken by the narco.

-At it seems for drug trafficking chiefs it is advantageous to fall into jail.

-The installation of a culture of domination by drug traffickers is a fact and the most complex of that is that the prison system, the entire judicial system, is designed so that, achieving a criminal sanction of the duration of the duration, withinThe jail disarticulate the criminal network, but the experience shows that you also have to intervene there, because that is not happening and many drug bosses continue to operate from prisons with great comfort.

-How could the real disarticulation of criminal networks be achieved?

-With more short but real penalties, which are really fulfilled.The system falls because the types are removed, they obtain alternative sanctions.No administrative efficiency.The same thing happens with Sename's children.The letter of the bills is beautiful, but in practice nothing written in the legislation works.I have said that at many work tables.On the issue of young law offenders, together with the deprivation of liberty, they are done treatment for drug use, for example, and follow -up when leaving.That is written in the law, but it has never been fulfilled.There is no deep look at what are the causes of the increase in crime and narco in Chile.Always against extreme cases, it has a high impact on public opinion to announce hardening and increased penalties and legislators dance the rhythm that the survey on duty puts on them.This is really like a Kafkian novel.

-Is there not a light of hope in combating narco?

-We have improved in diagnosis.Although it sounds ridiculous, that is an advance.We have improved in some answers and we know what we face, but the level of reaction that is needed today is much greater and it is necessary to improve a lot in preventive, because today's marijuana is not the same as that of ten years ago.The current Creepy is addictive in eighty percent, compared to five percent of the Paraguayan of yesteryear.The Colombian has fifty percent and is the one that is most consumed in populations.That is why the liberal and facilistic pseudo political discourse that calls to legalize marijuana without weighing the growing addictive power that it has.I aspire ... - he says in Semiserio and immediately corrects: –No, I don't aspire;In this matter it is more appropriate to use another verb.I would like there to be a transverse and permanent drug policy, not made by a government that lasts four years.Policies of at least ten years are required.I do not care so much if that policy depends on the Ministry of Interior or Health, but all the institutions involved coordinated and are long -term policies are.

Marijuana in La Araucanía

The second and third major issue that the prosecutor Toledo stands out of the report are “the increase in production of production in national soil and the increase in marijuana seizure.Here you can see the consolidation of Colombian marijuana that arrives in Chile, but particularly the increase in national cannabis production and synthetic drugs made in laboratories in our country ”.And the fourth, “very worrying and that the press highlighted a lot when the report was announced, it is the presence of international professional posters and drug remittances that arrive directly from Mexico and Colombia to Chile.We lift this as a serious threat, because it implies a professionalization of organized crime nationwide ”.

-In this context, how do you read the death of the teenager, whose younger brother is still at risk of death, after receiving a bullet in the skull while they went with their parents in a car on a Sunday in San Bernardo?

-My soul is collected.They crossed without knowing in the middle of a fire zone of two criminal bands, where the abandonment and absence of the authority is total.In many areas of Santiago a false success model is being installed, where young people learn that they can walk in a high -end car, with brand clothes if they relate to the indicated people.Traffic drug is a strong temptation.In La Pincoya, there are types that in the summer install pools for children in the passages, give clothes to young people and pass money to moms who are without a paste.That guarantees them total loyalty and their benefactors live between fear and convenience.What's back in all this?Pure inequality and frustration, because if something like this happened in Vitacura or Las Condes, everyone's reaction would be another.With this I am not saying that in Vitacura or Las Condes the narco is not installed.It is, but otherwise.

-Atra manifestation of inequality is that, although the female population deprived of liberty does not reach more than 4 one hundred of the total people who are in prison in Chile, half is for a cause associated with drug trafficking.Are they victims or victimaria?

-I will not discuss regarding that approach that relates criminal prosecution to the complete criminalization of the drug circle, including the weakest links of Lacadena for sale.I worry much more how the narco makes it easier to earn money very fast, which is a focus of tremendous corruption.As I said before, the prevention and criminal persecution of drug trafficking must be a state policy that exceeds a specific government, it must be transversal, and must arise from a social agreement that protects the weakest: children, young people, women, women.The neighborhood has been professionalizing.It is no longer about the dog's face band, which were family groups, are now professional associations that walk with automatic or semi -automatic armament, which hire and dominate “the distressed” of the population.With the violence that weapons give, drug traffickers are using women, homeowners, heads of household, mothers with very vulnerable informal jobs, to protect the drug.They use several to keep the drug, so that when the PDI does operations, they find part of the merchandise and not the whole.These women know that they are committed to the narco and that they have a role in the organization.Some of them are victims of poverty and others are traffickers.There are several ongoing investigations where they are head of the network of traffickers.

-In purpose of the entry of international posters to Chile, are there indications that these groups have to do with marijuana plantations in the area of Arauco and La Araucanía?

-It does not exist for us, at least in current investigations, a direct relationship between what is passed in those regions with the presence of the posters of Mexico and Colombia.Chile has always been a drug recipient country from other countries that are producers.That until now that there are synthetic drug production laboratories: pills with industrial machines for sale in national territory and there are major marijuana plantations in different regions, including that of Araucanía, where crops are linked to people,No to communities that fight for land claim or international posters.

Star moments of humanity

Father of small twins with his current woman, who is a high complexity prosecutor focused on migration issues, and two young daughters of a first marriage, the prosecutor is very careful to reveal personal details.He has received death threats and, therefore, is concerned.

He stays on his subject:

“In the conversation we had for streaming at the time of talking about the home of Christ, I shared the diagnosis made by the psychologist Carlos Vöhringer and the social worker David orders, of the Caleta.That which considers drug trafficking as an aspirational activity, focused on a consumption model, where people validate from having, not being.Thus an individualistic culture is generated, very little empathic, where what happens to the other, does not matter.That indifference is installed and we have cases of homicides, kidnappings, torture, and that happens especially when one band takes drugs to another.There, the mocked bites and gets the piece ".

To do the paste and fight that culture, the prosecutor insists that coordinated work is required.“Today there are 18 national prosecutors who do not share information from each other.A unique entity and robust institutional coordination are required.Spain did so and it has done very well.The object of the persecution cannot be the person who consumes, must be the one who produces, traffic and sells, ”he says.

And add the other great pending task: prevention, education, risk communication or as we want to call it.Prosecutor Toledo says: “I am not an anti marijuana taliban, but I know that marijuana damages, although today is almost socially validated.With marijuana, something similar happens to what happened with tobacco in the 30s of the last century.Then it was sustained until the teeth bleached, but today the rejection of its effects is unanimous.Today the boys believe that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol;They have convinced themselves.But, although I understand the argument of personal freedoms, I know it damages.It is not medicine;There is a component that has demonstrated certain effects on pain management, but the complete plant has more than four hundred canabinoids, including one forbidden in all laws in the world, even in the Vienna Convention ”.

-He said on several occasions that Chile is not Holland or Germany, when some propose legalizing marijuana, why?

-Because that proposal lacks weight, it is very light.If your children or mine or those of anyone who has economic and cultural resources fall into a problematic consumption of alcohol or marijuana will have treatment and rehabilitation, but what about Mrs. Juana's children in the population The castle?They have no option.In Germany and Holland they have resources to serve everyone.Here the only thing that would be achieved is to deepen inequality.

-He talked about the credibility crisis of the legislators, how are we at home, how is the Judiciary?

-It is not the judiciary who is in crisis;It is the entire justice system in question: the courts, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the lawyers themselves.There is no credibility in the sector, because in Chile we have become accustomed to dictating beautiful but not very effective texts in compliance.We celebrate the law but we do not measure or control its compliance and efficiency.To this is added that there is a deep crisis of institutional authority that if it is not resolved can lead us to a breakdown and mean a very sad path for the country.I hope that we can rectify and that issues as deep as those we are talking about now, form a substantive part of the discussion to get the best of each house and build a better society together.

-Do you have faith to the work of the Constitutional Convention?

-I have a lot of hope, I think it is a good opportunity, although there is always the risk of more extreme positions to end up imposing themselves.However, I trust that through these representatives we have a roadmap that allows us to build a better country, without exclusions.

Perhaps we are facing a stellar moment, not of humanity, as the title of his favorite book ("Star moments of humanity", by Stefanzweig), but Chile.A moment in which the drug prosecutor believes that the maxim he uses as avatar in one of his social networks should prevail: "The calculation is simple: if you are not going to add, do not restore".

"It seems to me that it is a very appropriate phrase for what we are living today, which is time to build," he concludes.