Global Courant
There are two characteristics that create “status” in the criminal world. The first is to live well and have a good lifestyle based on your activity. The rest are in prison: they say you should live and fight in a “common city” and not let anyone rob you. Criminals who meet both conditions are the only ones respected in this area, and they are very few.
But Juan Manuel “la Mummy” Montauti (46) managed to do what virtually no one else could: He faked a heart attack and was taken to hospital by a Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service (SPB) truck as a Ford Ranger crossed them. Four men with guns got out, threatened the guards and stole their weapons and cell phone keys to save Montauti. It was in Campana, at 9:30 in the morning. Only those from the criminal “elite” have companions who are willing to commit such an act.
“These are guys who subject themselves to investigation in return for something that does not bring a single peso of profit,” explains a person from the “criminal environment” who knows Montauti. And he continues: “You have to have logistics to get a truck that must have been stolen and already disposed of. Then there are the rifles: not everyone can get them, and they are very expensive. Finally, there are the risks of having to hide for a while. Because now they’re going to look for the five.”
Clarín was able to prove that Montauti was arrested on January 7th for the robbery of a tannery in Paso del Rey. He did it with at least five men. They stole a shipment of leather worth 30 million pesos (as of January) that was supposed to be exported to Spain. They wore bulletproof vests and weapons. Investigators only recovered part of the loot, in warehouses in Avellaneda and Ciudad Jardín.
A source with access to the files says: “Montauti acted as the leader of the gang. They just took the load. They didn’t touch the workers. They didn’t even steal their cell phones.”
Due to the robbery, the now fugitive was sent to Unit 21 in Campana. He was at the disposal of the Guarantee Court 2 of the Justice Department of Moreno-General Rodríguez, headed by Gabriel Alberto Castro, who approved his transfer. It was the third time he was taken to San Jose Municipal Hospital. I had an appointment because of a heart condition
A commando group rescued a prisoner who was transferred to a medical center in Campana.
The rescue occurred three blocks from the Campana turnoff of the Pan-American Highway and about 20 blocks from the hospital. The criminals fled along Route 6 towards Exaltación de la Cruz. During the escape, they threw away the key and the weapons stolen by the agents. Prosecutor Laura Brizuela, head of Campana’s Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) 2, intervenes.
Only as part of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF), Montauti was housed in the Marcos Paz Penitentiary Complex II between 2017 and 2019. He was then sent to Devoto Prison. He spent at least three stays in SPB facilities: from 2013 to 2017, the second lasted 22 days in 2020 and the third took him to Campana.
“What do I remember most about ‘the mummy?’” asks a former San Miguel police officer, listing: “That he spent his time violating a house arrest and we had to go to his house to “To check that there were always rumors” about his contacts with the security forces and that he had a very good standard of living.
The statement of the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service (SPB) about the prisoner rescued by a commando group in Campana.
However, the police officer mentions one piece of information: he remembers that his house was searched as part of the investigation into the kidnapping and crime of Candela Sol Rodríguez (11) in 2011.
The event in question took place on September 15th of the same year (Candela had been kidnapped on August 22nd). A black Ecosport van was stolen from his home at 4230 Miter Avenue in San Miguel. Buenos Aires police were looking for a truck with the same characteristics as those used in the kidnapping. During the investigation, genetic material was found from Hugo Bermúdez (one of the two people sentenced to life) and Montauti, but not from the victim.
For the investigators of the case, “the mummy” had previously stolen together with the two other convicts in the case: Leonardo Jara (life) and Gabriel Gómez (4 years as a secondary participant). In one of his investigations, Gómez claimed to have conducted a criminal trial with Montauti in Caseros.
Montauti comes from San Miguel, right on the border of the Miter and Santa María districts. In front of his property, he built rooms that generate rent. They would be a greengrocer and a laundry. “He was always associated with major gangs in the Conurbano. He has contacts everywhere. He’s a thief of the kind you don’t see anymore: he’s stolen trucks, armored vehicles and factories. “Once we found out that they had stolen a truck of sneakers and that his wife was responsible for reducing it,” adds the police officer, who entered his house several times where he should have been with the electronic anklet.
The reason he spent much of his sentence in house arrest dates back to 2012. “The Mummy” and an accomplice were in an Audi A3 in Ramallo. They chose a metal construction contractor’s Toyota Hilux truck. As part of the robbery, they kidnapped him and released him in Campana. Montauti was arrested five months later in San Martín.
