Increase in Cellphone Trafficking in Costa Rican Prisons – Here, Kitty, Kitty

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It is a known fact that incarcerated criminals in Costa Rica still manage to start new businesses, restart operations closed down by law enforcement, or maintain thriving organizations they bring with them from the outside. How can this happen, right under prison officials’ noses? The answer? Cell phones. Cell phones are, of course, prohibited in Costa Rican prison facilities.
According to Costa Rican Penitentiary Police Chief Pablo Bertozzi, “Criminal gangs have formed within prisons and have a nice side hussle smuggling phones into prison facilities.” Inmates pay as much as $700 per phone, and sell them to their fellow inmates for as much as $1,400. Business is booming!! Smuggling phones into prison is still not considered a crime in Costa Rica. If inmates are caught, they are punished with minor sanctions, sometimes just a warning, or confiscation of the phone. Legislation to create a new bill requiring phone companies to block their signal within the prison system has been stuck in constitutional arguments since 2016.

Over the last three years, 10,014 cellphones have been seized in Costa Rican prisons, but it is estimated that this was just the tip of the iceberg, many more are still circulating and generating revenue for prisoners, and perhaps guards. Stated Chief Bertozzi, “It’s always the same prisoners who have them.”
According to Insight Crime Magazine, “Cell phone availability in Costa Rican prisons and the ability of inmates to communicate with the outside has allowed criminals to continue conducting activities outside of prison.” Here’s a good example. Just last month, police took down — for the second time in two years — a drug trafficking network operating by phone from inside the notorious maximum security prison La Reforma, in San Rafael de Alajuela.

The presence of cell phones in prisons has become vital to the Costa Rican extortion market. Prisoners use WhatsApp, or other encrypted messaging services to generate high earnings easily, no need to threaten the victim in person, and money can be collected through bank transfers. It’s a seamless process.
How do inmates get those cell phones? Having one’s girlfriend smuggle in a cell phone is one possibility, or bribing a guard is another. A safer and cheaper way to acquire a cell phone in prison has been devised by clever inmates – narco-cats. Two recent cases of inmates discovered in possession of cell phones at La Reforma, were traced back to specially trained cats who allegedly smuggled the cell phones attached to the cat’s neck and chest by a special mini harness. The cats were able to smuggle in a used phone, charger, extra battery, and a hands free device. Clever kitty. (Pic below)
As long as the legislation banning cell phone service within the prison system stagnates on the desk waiting to be signed by the President, cell phone trafficking and use will continue unchecked and remain both lucrative and rarely punished . Ultimately, it may be the new laws against the abuse of animals that will resolve the issue, and prison cats will be able to retire comfortably, no longer required to carry heavy cell phone equipment strapped onto their feline bodies.

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