• Six people were arrested and prosecuted, including the alleged main coordinator.
  • In some cases, they allegedly simulated catastrophic situations, such as the death or serious illness of relatives residing in the United States, so that Colombian citizens could speed up the issuance of visas.

An illegal scheme involved in processing visas to the United States with false information, under the assumption of dealing with humanitarian or emergency matters, was discovered by the Attorney General’s Office in a joint investigative work with Dijin of the National Police.

Six of the alleged perpetrators of these criminal activities were arrested and brought before a judge. A prosecutor appointed to the Directorate specialized in the fight against Human Rights Violations charged them with aggravated criminal conspiracy and migrant smuggling. They did not plead guilty.

The defendants are: the alleged main coordinator, Álvaro Andrés Triviño Hernández; and his associates, Lorena Maritza González Rodríguez, Wendy Johana Torres Ruiz, July Andrea Acero Linares, Liseth Dayana Carmona Múnera and Jennyfer Xiomara López Ruge.

The evidence indicates that these people apparently created a law firm based in Bogotá, Medellín, Miami and New York, which offered an express processing of entry permits to U.S. territory. The interested parties paid between 3,000 and 5,000 dollars in exchange for creating fraudulent profiles that gave false details about assets, academic training, personal details and other aspects that did not correspond to reality.

For example, it was proven that on several occasions they simulated that the petitioners had relatives residing in the United States who had just died or were suffering from a serious illness, so it was urgent for them to go to that country.

These and other false data were included in the visa application forms to mislead the consular representatives of the United States Embassy in Bogotá, and this way to obtain humanitarian or emergency status, and the process had priority. Thus, about 60 visas were processed, and 16 were subsequently rejected or revoked.

Triviño Hernández and Lorena Maritza González Rodríguez were sent to prison by the judge’s decision. The other people involved must serve home detention.

These people were arrested in proceedings carried out in Bogotá, Medellín and Copacaba (Antioquia). During the investigation, photocopies of 160 passports and 60 visas were found, as well as 24,000 dollars. 

 The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.