Lima, December 25 (RHC-teleSUR) -- An anti-corruption operation in Peru jailed four high-ranking police officers for extortion and a prison search found over 100 liters of illegal liquor made in-house.

On Wednesday, an intelligence operation planned by the Public Ministry resulted in the arrest of four high ranking police from the Criminal Investigation Direction known as Dirincri for its Spanish acronym. The operation was called “Christmas” in reference to the day of its execution.

The officers were caught committing flagrant acts of corruption, soliciting, in exchange for freedom, approximately US$3,300 from people detained for robbery. The operation was run by prosecutor Reynaldo Avila together with two other prosecutors from the Third Team of the Second Anticorruption Prosecution Unit of Lima.

The second special intelligence operation on Christmas Eve was run by the National Penitentiary Institute or INPE. They performed an extraordinary search of the pavilions C and D of the Arequipa Prison. This second operation was called “Clean Up 2014.”

The search revealed illegal possessions of 150 liters of fermented liquor made by the prisoners, three cellphones without sim cards, 55 grams of crack cocaine, and several USB memory devices and sharp weapons. The operation involved 88 officers from INPE and 160 law enforcement agents from the National Police of Peru (PNP).