Overview
- A multi-agency sweep led by the Ministry of Transport and Communications removed 33 clandestine antennas, seven towers and about 180 unauthorized radio and networking devices from around several penitentiaries.
- Four people were arrested and handed to the Public Ministry for investigation, including an active-duty Navy technician accused of helping install the equipment.
- Officials say the illegal stations were aimed at penitentiary compounds and could have supplied internet and phone signal inside cells, which may have helped inmate networks coordinate from within prison.
- The MTC has warned that installing radio-electrical gear in the perimetral 'intangible' zone around prisons is a very serious offense carrying administrative sanctions and possible prison terms of up to nine years.
- The action follows earlier inside-prison seizures of phones and routers at Ancón I and the transfer of high-risk inmates to Challapalca, and the government has opened new control measures at Ancón I with naval custody of screening equipment.