Overview
- Captain Román Vallejos broke his silence in a TV interview, denying any role in the thefts and saying his banked millions came from buying and selling used cars through his firm, Prama Cars.
- Fiscal records show more than S/31 million moved through his accounts from 2023 to 2025, including S/8.52 million in cash deposits that prosecutors say line up with alleged gold appropriations in 2023.
- A protected cooperating witness told investigators Vallejos leaked routes for gold shipments and said Prama Cars supplied vehicles used to move the bars before the swaps.
- Public registries list Prama Cars as created in 2022 with S/5,000 in capital and ownership of 96 vehicles, figures officials say do not match the scale of money in Vallejos’s accounts.
- The arrests carried out April 23 left three officers in custody, including a colonel and two captains, as prosecutors pursue illicit enrichment and bribery charges and continue tracing possible additional gold-swapping incidents.