(HQ) Sifting through hidden evidence under water will be the new challenge for a group of 15 judicial agents, after the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) formalized the creation of a Criminal Diving Unit.
This is a novel incursion for the investigation since it is intended to contribute to the judicial processes all those evidentiary elements, such as bodies or firearms, among others, that are thrown into the sea, a lake, or a river, with the intention of disappearing them and erase any evidence of a crime.
The unit, which is described as itinerant because it can act anywhere in the country, is made up of 15 agents from different areas of the country and whose only affinity is to be diving enthusiasts.
The agents dive into action depending on the investigative circumstances, putting aside their regular functions to put on the suit, gloves, fins, mask and air tank.
The director of the OIJ, Walter Espinoza, said that the unit will have the essential function of expanding the limits of the Agency’s action “in the attention of all those underwater scenarios, where there are indications of a criminal act that require lifting without any type of alterations.
“The Crime Diving Unit will have photographic divers, planimetric divers, inspection divers and all kinds of specialties in criminalistics and diving, applied from a forensic point of view underwater,” said Espinoza.