Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Undercover police detained thirteen people suspected of charging Peruvian students up to $1,200 to help them cheat on the admissions exam to get into the National University of Callao.

To lure students willing to pay their price, criminals distributed thousands of fliers at the university itself and at a university preparatory academy in San Juan de Lurigancho.

Claiming their method would give students the keys to get into the university and guarantee their success, criminals appealed to many. To make the offer more enticing, students did not have to pay until after they had been admitted.

Colonel Pedro Bailón, head of the fraud investigations department for the national police was called after university heads heard rumors of the illegal methods being offered to students.

The first step taken by police investigators was to respond to one of the ads, which had an e-mail address and a phone number. While the suspects did not answer e-mails sent to them by police, they did receive calls to give information.

Undercover officers met with the heads of the gang and reported they had been instructed to buy platform shoes, a loose long-sleeve shirt and pants. Criminals fitted the clothes to meet their needs.

Holes were made in the platform shoes to hide cellular phones and avoid metal detectors while shirts were taken to tailors to have the wire of a handsfree device run up the shirts sleeve and into its cuff.

Furthermore, a special pouch was made at the bottom of the shirt to hide a cellular phone.

It was reported that criminals were given the test answers by one student taking the exam. They, in turn, gave the answers to the rest of their "clients".

Police arrested over a dozen students cheating on the exam in July.