BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- When kidnappers told abducted millionaire Mauricio Macri in September that they would know right away if his family called the police, it was the understatement of the year for Argentina.
Most of the ringleaders of the kidnapping were in fact policeman, and one was 'commissary,' or senior officer, in charge of communications.
Now the kidnapping gang of at least 11 policemen, ex-policemen and former security guards can take their place among the sad rolls of Argentina's most lucrative abduction rings. Responsible for at least five major kidnappings and one murder in 12 years, the commissaries raked in an estimated $16 million.
That places them just behind the now-defunct People's Revolutionary Army, which extorted $18 million for abductions, and the Montonero guerrillas, who lead the abduction sweepstakes with total hauls of $68 million.
Though the ring was dismantled by a Federal Police investigation in November, the exposure of high-level police wrongdoing raises disturbing questions about the level of civic responsibility in Argentina -- a country not yet fully recovered from its violent past of the 1970s when 9,000 suspected political dissidents were kidnapped, tortured and killed by security forces.
Among the suspects are two active-duty precinct chiefs, the head of communications, and eight retired policemen -- including commissaries, deputy police chiefs and sergeants. They also included a former intellegence agent from the military regime and Juan Carlos Arza, a deputy chief and the ex-bodyguard of former President Raul Alfonsin.
'It's a group that learned to operate outside the law during the legal repression and later continued operating outside the law on their own,' said Interior Minister Jose Luis Manzano. He called the gang 'a highly professional unit' from within the 32,000-member federal police force.
'Their motive was to make money and live like rich men,' Manzano said, noting that they got ransoms of between $500,000 and $5 million to free four of its five victims. A fifth, Mario Dudoc, kidnapped in 1980, is assumed dead.
But the suspected members of the kidnapping ring seem to have crossed an invisible line among police -- going too far when they kidnapped Macri, one of Argentina's wealthiest industrialists.
The disclosure of the ring prompted Manzano to announce that the police force would dismiss at least 500 more officers in Buenos Aires before the end of the month for 'incidents' with the public, insubordination or just 'working for a long time in a section where bad things happen.'
'The task of the police to enforce security becomes very difficult if you do not have the trust of the people, and, to have the population's trust, it was neccesary to do these things,' Manzano said.
But repairing the image of Buenos Aires police will be far from easy.
A growing list of police face criminal charges, drawing increasing public attention and underlining a gangster-like attitude of impunity that is evident even among some policemen too young to have lived through the dictatorship.
Some of the policemen are accused of simple murder, in one case of a motorist who did not have his car's paperwork in order. Two officers are accused of torturing fellow policeman Severo Tevez, and at least a half dozen police officers await charges in the slayings of teenagers in their custody.
Argentines say many officers daily extort free meals or drinks, threaten citizens and accept petty bribes. Police themselves acknowledge problems in the force, but say they are a product of low pay and a generally poor public image of a police force tainted by the repression of the late 1970s.
'The police bring up bad memories,' said one corporal with 11 years on the Buenos Aires police force, referring to the 'dirty war' the government waged against dissent from 1976 to 1983. 'When I started working, it was a difficult time. It's the uniform people fear, not what's inside.'
A sargeant with 18 years on the Buenos Aires police force said the bust of the kidnapping ring 'hurts us, but it also makes us happy because the (police) institution is purifying itself.'
The sargeant aknowledged that some offiers are corrupt, 'but the good policeman doesn't do that. I would say that 80 percent of the police force is honest.'
An agent -- the lowest rank in the Argentine police force -- earns the equivalent of $350 a month while an average police officer receives about $550 a month and a police precinct chief earns $1,000 a month.
Merchants say the low pay contributes to petty bribery. 'Eating free, things like that, is socially accepted,' said Hugo Sanchez, 24, a deli worker. 'If you don't let them eat free they send thieves to you to break up your store.'
Other police officers have been known to explicitly threaten to close bars on any of a dozen allegedly violated health regulations in retaliation for not serving them free.
But some residents excuse the police actions. 'The police are not paid what they should be and unfortunately that leads to a situation where there is corruption,' said Antonio Rodriguez, 37, a banker.
And, the people believe, there would be no problem if citizens did not allow it to happen.
'Society doesn't arm those most qualified, it arms those who have the least capacity,' said Carlos Diaz, 30, the owner of a small grocery store. 'All of us are part of a corrupt system, and we all share the blame. I am just as corrupt if I evade taxes.'NEWLN:
