QCOSTARICA — The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) arrested five officials of the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI) – National Children’s Welfare Agency – for apparent human trafficking and illegal adoptions.
On Tuesday, OIJ agents carried out five raids as part of the investigation of the case, which began in October 2022.
Raided were PANI offices in Cariari, Pococí, Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas; the PANI Immediate Regional Attention Department in Alajuela; the PANI headquarters in Orotina, and a comprehensive center located in Santa Ana, San José.
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The people under investigation are three women and two men, between 31 and 61 years of age, and were arrested on public roads in the sectors of Guácimo, Siquirres, Pococí, Puerto Jiménez and Orotina. The arrested officials worked as lawyers and social workers.
“The investigation began in October 2022, after the Executive President of PANI submitted a report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in August of that year, in which she stated that, in the local PANI office in Cariari de Pococí, there were a series of administrative irregularities in adoption procedures for minors.
“As a result of this situation, different investigative procedures were carried out, where these suspicious persons were identified and, in addition, it was found that there were irregularities in the apparent location of minors; that the administrative processes required in adoption matters were not being carried out correctly,” the Prosecutor’s Office indicated.
Apparently, the officials included false information on reports they generated, for example saying that a family consumed drugs as a basis for removing that child from the family and being able to take it to a care center in order to remove the minors from their biological families and place them in an adoptive family.
Randall Zuñiga, head of the OIJ, in his statements to the press did not said how many children were involved or whether they have been located, nor specify where the migrant children were from.
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Authorities are also investigating an apparent financial aid given by PANI to the families, while the guardianship of the minors was being resolved in court.
All those arrested will be placed at the disposal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will decide their legal situation.
The case remains under investigation to clarify whether or not these officials received any kind of payment.
The judicial investigation is being carried out by agents from the Specialized Section on Gender Violence, Human Trafficking and Illicit Trafficking of Migrants.
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