Guatemala City, Sep 3 (EFE).- The charges leveled against the director of Guatemala's prison service do not include homicide, authorities said Wednesday, a few hours after police announced the official's arrest.
Edgar Camargo, who has been in the post for 18 months, was captured during a raid that was part of an operation headed by Guatemala's U.N.-sponsored International Commission against Impunity, known as Cicig.
Originally, authorities had said that Camargo was facing charges in connection with a murder, but they subsequently clarified that he is accused of taking bribes and conspiring to launder money.
Cicig commissioner Ivan Velasquez Gomez, a Colombian jurist, said Camargo was part of "a criminal network within the prison system" that has as its main figure former army Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, serving a 20-year sentence for his participation in the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi.
"Lima Oliva represents for many of the inmates the true authority and so they turn to him for favors and privileges," Velasquez said at a joint press conference with Guatemalan Attorney General Thelma Aldana and Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.
Aldana said there are 14 people in custody linked to the criminal network, which devoted itself to making illegal prisoner transfers in exchange for economic benefits with Camargo as an accomplice.
"We have concrete cases and sufficient evidence to prove these crimes," she said.
While behind bars, Lima Oliva has acquired several residences, including a house on the beach, as well as a pair of luxury automobiles, Velasquez said.
Camargo was taken into custody at his home in Mixco, a town in the central province of Guatemala.
"I'm calm and ready to appear before the appropriate judge," Camargo said to reporters as he entered the Torre de Tribunales courthouse in Guatemala City.
