(Bloomberg) -- President Luis Lacalle Pou’s head of personal security was indicted Tuesday for his alleged participation in a forgery ring that helped Russians obtain Uruguayan passports.

Public prosecutor Gabriela Fossati said a judge granted her request to indict Alejandro Astesiano for three crimes including influence trafficking. Two other people have also been indicted with the judge ordering all three to be detained to avoid obstructing the investigation, she said.

There are still “many more” people to be questioned in the ongoing probe, Fossati told reporters outside the courthouse in Montevideo.

Local newspapers El Observador and El Pais reported that Lacalle Pou dismissed Astesiano after he was indicted.

The investigation started in 2021 after an organization representing Russians living in Mexico tipped off authorities that Russian citizens were using fake Uruguayan documents. The forgery ring allegedly adulterated Russian birth certificates using the personal information of deceased Uruguayans obtained from government records, according to a document provided by Fossati’s office. Russian buyers used the fake papers to pass themselves off as the children of Uruguayan citizens to apply for passports. 

Astesiano was arrested Sept. 25 at the presidential residency after Lacalle Pou returned from a trip abroad with his children. Speaking in a press conference Monday, Lacalle Pou said he was shocked by the arrest of Astesiano, who he has known since 1999.

“I haven’t encountered the slightest obstruction to this investigation neither by the executive branch” nor the police and public prosecutor’s office, Fossati said.

(Updates with reported dismissal of security chief in fourth paragraph)

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