Agents said at the time that the gang of kidnappers assisted Araya with the prison break in which a guard was murdered. Investigators figure that vehicles awaited the inmates outside the prison.
The gang was involved in high stakes kidnappings, mostly of businessmen. Unlike other criminals, they accepted property and cars as part payment of the ransom, officials said. Police attribute at least
four separate cases of kidnapping to the gang. In most cases the victims were held about a week.
Investigators are believed to have found out about the plan to grab Barrantes when they were investigating a recent kidnapping involving a businessman.
Two more suspects still are at large, so investigators are being careful about what they say. The only official word was a brief statement from the press office of the Judicial Investigating Organization.
That statement said that the arrests were made on the public right-of-way in San José, but other sources said the arrests were made Wednesday in Desamparados and Asserí.
As archbishop, Barrantes is the highest ranking Roman Catholic churchman in the country. He has held the post since 2002. Typically clergymen, including bishops, do not have high security.
The other prison inmate who is suspected of trying to engineer the kidnapping of the archbishop is believed to be a Colombian facing a long sentence for narcotics trafficking.
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