General Raul Alfaro, chief of Peru's police, had the hours counted since his own agents raided his office at the Interior Ministry on Monday. His dismissal today, ruled by the government of President Dina Boluarte, has not surprised a country that has long since lost its capacity for wonder.

The former police commander is part of the criminal network discovered by the authorities, with which it was intended to spy on judges, prosecutors and journalists to favor the coup leader Pedro Castillo. The big star of this new scandal is businessman Jorge Ernesto Hernández, alias El Español, who has risen to fame in recent weeks. His ID confirms that he was born in Alicante in 1990.

Hernández landed in Lima in 2016 thanks to a romantic relationship with a Peruvian woman and soon entered the world of telephone interceptions and instant messaging. Local media say he charged $5,000 to tap a mobile phone and a computer.

Another Spaniard, Sergio Castellanos, appears prominently in this network of espionage and extortion. The two Spaniards were arrested two weeks ago and are now being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, which accuses them of crimes as serious as conspiracy, offering hired assassins and influence peddling.

A photograph of the commander who has gone into retirement in one of the celebrations of his Spanish friend, although he denied knowing him, was one of the weight tests that precipitated an announced fall. The controversial Catalan businessman delivered to the Prosecutor's Office his conversations with the police chief through WhatsApp, in an obvious tone of camaraderie.

Through parties and futsal games he organized in his mansion and his contacts with the police, Hernández met Fray Vásquez, one of the nephews of former President Castillo, who in turn was part of the alleged family mafia headed by his uncle. His capacity for enchantment was such that in police investigations it has been known that it was the Alicante businessman who convinced Castillo to place Commander Alfaro at the head of the Police. Some political sources define Hernández as a "security adviser" to the Cajamarca teacher.

The two Spaniards and their Peruvian allies offered to provide the then president with a system of espionage against all those, such as prosecutors, investigative police and journalists, who might interfere in his plans for power.

"Here there will be no impunity against corrupt and corrupters. We are taking the corresponding measures to separate from the State the bad elements that were colluded with corruption," Boluarte told Commander Alfaro, who endured seven months at the head of the Police.

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