Four people are charged with creating “the lives of the rich” for customers and defrauding not only people, but the United States Embassy itself. USA in Colombia with the visa process.

The director of the Directorate of Judicial Investigations and Interpol of the Colombian National Police (DIJIN), Olga Salazar, mentioned that the gang had been dismantled and it is believed that it had been operating for 20 years. He stressed that the investigations were conducted in cooperation with US authorities.

Those arrested respond to the names of Javier Monterrosa, Griselda Ramírez, Michael Ospina and Octavio Reina, Semana reported.

The network “was responsible for blowing up profiles with false documents and certificates, and in this way they even misled the US authorities,” they added.

In the past year alone, authorities said, “the criminal group managed to earn more than 500 million pesos ($105,082.06),” Infobae published.

A case in Manatí raised the alarm and those involved were in Barranquilla and Bogotá

How the illegal visa processing network worked

“This gang charged between 8 and 10 million pesos for forging documents” and thanks to a woman’s case, the illegal network collapsed.

They call that woman carolina (name changed due to judicial reservation). She visited the embassy in 2022, “with a folder of documents, diplomas and work certificates. His economic and academic profile was very high, his passport had stamps from different countries (…)”, they explained.

The official, with a nose, hesitated: “the answers he gave did not match what was in his folder.” Because of that clarion call, the visa was not approved and his case aroused serious suspicion.

According to the folder, Carolina turned out to be a lawyer, businesswoman and cattle dealer in the Department of the Atlantic.

Alarming data and materials found the research. Photo: taken from Week

The Embassy alerted the police and the investigation revealed what people thought: what Carolina said was a lie.

The documents the woman had were false, all counterfeit, including a college degree recognizing her as a lawyer from Simón Bolívar University and her employment certificates.

She also had no farm. This property “didn’t exist, it wasn’t known in the region and its real location was Cali.”

The four involved were mobilizing along the Caribbean coast

“When looking at the documents of 30 people (…) the surprise was huge, they were all farmers, with a high economic income, professionals and with travel abroad. It was all false, but they had already received the visa.”

In this scenario, the US authorities would review it at least 1500 suspicious visas.

Found the network

The clues led to those involved. One man spoke of another who was very good at “getting visas for the United States, but he charged hard.”

And other people – whom the fall was discovered – referred to an operations center in Barranquilla.

“The services ranged from completing the DS-160 form – tourist visa application -, creating the fake profile, providing training to respond to the embassy, ​​to finally obtaining the document,” the press reported.

They are investigating an alleged VIP service: scheduling medical appointments at specialized centers across the United States to include that document in the folder, authorities say.

The network has apparently functioned for the past two decades and “of the 4 suspected members who formed it, three were in Barranquilla and another in Bogotá.”

One of the detainees and the alleged leader of the gang has a criminal record.

Among other things, authorities found “200 visa processing documents, 36 passports, 33 immigration stamps, 16 IDs, 7 credit cards, 5 professional lawyer cards, five mobile phones, hard drives”.