'The compadres de la UNI', the mafia that charged up to 30 thousand soles for admission to universities

Armando Palomino Cano, Nicold Arrunátegui Tardio and Denis Enciso Quinto, better known as 'Los compadres de la UNI', have been held in custody for 36 months, investigated for crimes of criminal organization and generic falsehood after being accused of trafficking in admission exams from at least 11 national universities, among the which was the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM). Eder Fernando Tataje Espinoza, who was investigated for the same crimes, was issued the order of appearance with restrictions, a decision that was appealed in a hearing by the Public Ministry.

This mafia, which had been operating since 2011, used two modalities to attract applicants: it was to train the student with the use of electronic devices to receive the answers without being discovered and the other was, through the impersonation of the applicant during the admission exam.

The members of this criminal organization registered the applicant by uploading edited photographs so that the physical features of the impersonator resemble that of the applicant. They also prepared silicone fingerprints in the event that the university to which they were applying used a biometric system for control and identification on the day of the exam. They charged from 3,000 to 30,000 soles.

The fiscal hypothesis, carried out by Jiménez Fuentes, with the support of Deputy Prosecutors Ingrid Milla Gargurevich and William Martínez Mucha, is that under this modality, income was obtained from UNMSM, Hermilio Valdizán, Fabiola Salazar Leguía, José Faustino Sánchez Carrión; and some applicants from universities are also involved nationals of Ucayali, Piura, the Peruvian Amazon, Jaén, Trujillo, Huamanga and the Centre.

CAPTURE

According to an investigation by La República, the prosecutor, with judicial authorization, and several police officers raided the La Estancia Country Club hotel in Huánuco, after the authorities of the Hermilio Valdizán National University intervened Eder Tataje Espinoza by impersonating an applicant.

In the rooms of the aforementioned place they found the leader Luis Palomino Cano, 'The Engineer', and his collaborators Denis Enciso Quinto, 'Chaparro' and Nicold Arrunátegui Tardio, 'La chata', when they were solving the questions of the entrance exam and passing the answers to the applicants who had paid a advancement. It has not been ruled out that there are more involved in the case.

CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION

'The compadres of UNI' had sophisticated equipment of high-end mobile phones, as well as state-of-the-art laptops. It was a whole organization: there was the head of the group; the assistant, who was in charge of administrative tasks; the recruiter who was looking for applicants willing to pay the sums of money; the collector who checked the students' documents; and the trainer who taught applicants how to address themselves in the exam. There were other members of the criminal group who handled the equipment and the communication keys.

Already in the admission exam there were three 'specialists': the 'fotero' registered as an applicant and attended the exam to photograph the questions and send them to the coordinator; the 'tigers' who solved the exam, and the 'kamikaze', better known as the applicant's impersonator.

In the memories of the cell phones, the amounts charged by the organization were found: if the student was interested, he had to register with an advance of 2,000, 1,000 or 500 soles, depending on what he wanted. There was even a discount of 500 soles if it was for a group of four applicants to the same faculty and university.

If the student had entered, the agreed amount had to be canceled. If he did not do so, the same organization indicated that he had the power to cancel admission to the university.

For the faculties of medicine or engineering they charged between 7,500 and 15,000 soles. Those two races in addition to Law at UNMSM cost between 15,000 and 30,000 soles.

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