Global Courant
-Mr. Marcos Estrada?
-Good morning, Dr. Carolina Díaz greets you.
The otherwise cordial dialogue took place at 2:17 a.m. last Tuesday, September 19, in a luxury apartment in the Surco neighborhood, a thriving real estate district southwest of Lima, Peru.
Only the video images – to which Clarín had access – show that the conversation (if you can call it that) took place in a very tense moment.
Surrounded by police officers – in work uniforms and armed for war – in his underwear, half asleep, barefoot and with his hands tied behind his back, Marco Antonio Estrada Gonzáles (60) – absolute owner of drug sales in Bajo Flores de Buenos Aires for 25 years – resigned he listens as an official from Peru’s anti-money laundering prosecutor’s office reads out the charges against him.
“We are having your provisionally remanded in custody for a period of 10 days due to the money laundering investigation,” the officer tells him and “Marcos” listens to her in silence and resignation. “He is accused of being a member of the money laundering organization led by his brother Fernando Estrada Gonzáles,” adds Carolina Díaz.
“Piti”, brother of Marco Estrada Gonzáles, aka “Marcos”, along with his son Jonathan Estrada Reyes.
Marco Estrada Gonzáles (aka “Marcos”) was sentenced to 24 years in prison by an Argentine federal court in October 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and deported to Peru on June 22, 2022. Marco Estrada Gonzáles (aka “Marcos”) lived in an apartment of 130 square meters, three bedrooms, terrace and pool.
When the Peruvian National Police rushed to the scene on the orders of the First National Preparatory Court, “Marcos” was alone. The fact is that his wife and mother of his children, Silvana Salazar, could not travel with him to Peru because, as an Argentine, she cannot benefit from the “alienation” regime.
After being sentenced to 18 years in prison in the same trial as her husband, Silvana was released from prison on July 28. He left Ezeiza prison after vowing to fulfill some conditions: not to leave the country, not to go near the city 1-11-14, to wear an electronic anklet and to get a job.
Jonathan Fernando Estrada Reyes (39) and Johana Alexandra Estrada Reyes (36), children of “Piti” Estrada Gonzáles, arrested.
“In Argentina, ‘Marcos’ had a money laundering case, but it was dropped because there was no evidence. What is happening in Peru is huge: Since the case points to an alleged ‘criminal organization’, he was arrested preventively 10 days The Peruvian procedural code allows this during the investigation period. That is, they arrest him to collect evidence,” Laura Fechino, historical lawyer for “Marcos” in Argentina, explained to Clarín.
According to Fechino, the “Marcos” situation definitely needs to be resolved this week. Two of his nephews, children of Fernando “Piti” Estrada Gonzáles (57): Johana Alexandra Estrada Reyes (36) and Jonathan Fernando Estrada Reyes (39) also fell into the same money laundering file – christened “Operativo Gaucho” by the Peruvian police. .
“Piti”, who was on the run from Argentine justice for 13 years – all of whom lived in Lima without major problems – decided last April to turn himself in to the Argentine Prosecutor’s Office for Drug Crimes (Procunar). He did it with the idea of allowing the statute of limitations against the accusation against him of leading a drug gang to expire.
Peruvian drug trafficker Marco Estrada Gonzáles, alias “Marcos,” was arrested in Lima.
In Lima, “Piti” left behind part of his family and also an old drug trafficking and money laundering case in which he is accused of being the leader of the organization and in which – rebound or not – his older brother has fallen.
The officer who reads out his rights to “Marcos” Estrada Gonzales in the video of the arrest makes it clear: The money laundering alleged by Peru would have been implemented with the money from the sale of drugs in the settlement of November 1, 2014. The city of Buenos Aires.
The story of “Marcos”
For Marco Antonio Estrada Gonzáles, the October 2020 verdict was not the first, but the harshest. An initial investigation that began at the end of the 1990s ended in 2004 with a prison sentence of four years and two months, according to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice 2.
The classification at the time was “organizer of an illicit association, possession of narcotics for marketing purposes, aggravated by the number of participants and collection of weapons and war ammunition.”
They arrested Jonathan Fernando Estrada Reyes (39), son of Peruvian drug trafficker “Piti” Estrada Gonzáles.
The two largest trials against him for drug trafficking – the first led to his request for international arrest and detention in Asunción, Paraguay in 2007 – were concluded with two abbreviated trials, each with six years in prison. The first occurred in 2012 and another in 2013, resulting in a single ten-year prison sentence.
“Marcos” went to prison, but was released on parole in February 2014 thanks to a series of boarding courses (he finished high school and studied “mechanics”). He then moved with his family to the private La Celia neighborhood in Ezeiza, the same place where the then Buenos Aires Security Minister Alejandro Granados lived. He was arrested there again in 2016 for continuing to manage the drug sales business on November 1, 2014.
They arrested Johana Alexandra Estrada Reyes (36), daughter of Peruvian drug trafficker “Piti” Estrada Gonzáles.
After the effect of the 24-year prison sentence (in 2020), Estrada Gonzales had led a comfortable life again by being expelled from Argentina. He certainly did not believe that the money laundering proceedings initiated in Lima would be successful or directed against him.
“As soon as he arrived in Peru, ‘Marcos’ was informed of the existence of this file, which was created to investigate companies owned by his brother and his brother’s family. He said he had nothing to do with it. In fact, he only has one piece of land in Peru, a house that his mother gave him during her lifetime,” explained Fechino Clarín.
The structure of the Peruvian drug gang “Marcos” that fell in Lima.
In other words, when the police broke into his property in the Surco district, “Marcos” already knew what it was about.
Perhaps that’s why he took it in stride, answered all questions calmly and closed the picture in the same peaceful tone with a modest: “Can you please help me get dressed?”
