Global Courant 2023-05-25 14:00:06
“Commissioner, everything under control”, “We work with the police”, “We are professionals”. Those were some of the phrases with which the command group sought to convince the victims that they had police protection. They wore ski masks, encrypted handies, and gloves. The objective was always the same: upper-class houses in San Isidro that they studied before entering. Thus they stole a fortune in jewelry and money. They seemed infallible, but a thorough investigation led to ten raids and they ended up in jail.
The gang, which the Police dubbed the “false commissioner” because they pretended to work for the force, attacked seven luxury properties in different residential neighborhoods of San Isidro in three months. It is estimated that they stole at least 120,000 dollars, 6,000 euros, 1.5 million pesos and a large amount of jewelry. They had logistics and preparation that made it very difficult to discover them. They were even careful not to steal cell phones, tablets or notebooks for which they could be tracked with GPS. Before leaving, they located the DVR of the cameras and took it with them.
That forced the researchers to pay attention to small details. As small as the Telepase tag they used for the toll, or that moment in which points are added after loading gasoline. These clues were the ones that confirmed the suspicions of the assistant attorney general of San Isidro Patricio Ferrari, who took charge of the case, and for which the gang ended up in disarray.
The investigation began three months ago after the first of the robberies in Lavalle at 1500, in Martínez. On the night of Wednesday, February 15, three thieves entered a couple’s house, beat them, tied the floor with seals, and took a safe with money from them.
The four suspects in the gang that robbed luxury houses were detained by the DDI San Isidro.
Two days later, once again a trio of assailants entered the house of a wine businessman at Uriburu 100, in Béccar, tied him and his wife with seals and stole money, jewelry and a kitchen appliance of little value. This last detail was another hallmark: in addition to dollars, gold and diamonds, the thieves added a toaster, blender or electric kettle to the loot.
On March 8, another similar event occurred in the house of a retiree located at Jacinto Díaz at 2500, Béccar. On the 31st of the same month, this time five thieves entered the house of a woman at 3800 Ada Elflein, in La Horqueta. Money, jewelry and an appliance were part of the loot.
In April the band registered no activity. It is common for thieves of these characteristics, with some preparation and the idea of continuing to strike, to keep for a few weeks to “cool off” and not be discovered.
On May 1, the victim was the president of a major brokerage firm. This time there were four hooded men who entered his house at 1600 Obispo Terrero, one block from the Jockey Club. The modality and the loot, the same.
Money, gloves and cell phones seized in one of the ten raids.
On May 12, the gang reappeared in Blanco Encalada at 1800, in Boulogne, where three armed robbers threatened an entire family, beating them, tying them up, and taking jewelry and money from them. A week later, they wanted to enter a house in Virasoro at 1900, in Béccar. They could not. The owner saw them moving around the back, turned on the lights and activated the alarm. The thieves escaped.
But that same night they attacked again at the home of a businesswoman, CEO of a major travel assistance company. At the time of the robbery, the property was empty and the owner discovered everything when she arrived. Like all the other victims, she was robbed of jewelry and money. The thieves were recorded by the home’s security cameras.
In their stories, the different victims told that the thieves used to say that they worked “for the Police” or that they went by handy to a “commissioner”. Investigators found that the gang had no ties to police officials and that it was all a strategy to impose fear.
The path to find the suspects began to retrace, coincidentally, with the vehicle they used to get around: a dark Toyota SW4 whose license plate was exchanged for one stolen hours before, also in San Isidro. In this way they wanted to evade the license plate detectors of the municipality.
The Toyota SW4 that the thieves used in the different assaults.
Likewise, supported by the security cameras of San Isidro, the investigators managed to reconstruct the route that the criminals took at full speed to the Pan-American highway. That’s where they almost always went to Escobar and sometimes to Tigre, where one of the defendants lives, who has previous convictions.
One of the maneuvers that the driver and head of the gang used to do was to stick to a car to prevent the 4×4’s license plate from being read by the cameras. In addition, they lowered the parasols so that their faces are not recorded on the video.
But the head of the gang, identified as Gastón Adrián Refatti (47), made two crucial mistakes, a source in the case told Clarín. On several occasions, the toll booth read the tag that the SW4 has attached with the data from its original patent. The other was leaving an unnecessary digital trail: when he loaded gasoline into a YPF, the same nights as the robberies, he asked that the points be added to his account.
The other detainees were identified as Juan Gabriel Antivero (41), Ramón Antonio Medina (40) and Angel Javier Mundaray Milano (43, Venezuelan). The searches requested by Ferrari and endorsed by the judge of Guarantees Andrea Rodríguez Mentasty were carried out by the DDI San Isidro in Benavidez, Virreyes, Pacheco, Tigre and Escoba.
In total, they seized five Toyota Hilux vans.
In addition to finding the famous dark SW4, they found five Toyota Hilux (two grey, two white and one red), a white VW Polo, a gray Chevrolet Onix and a BMW 1000 RR motorcycle. 11,000 dollars, 280,000 pesos, 100 euros, 10 cell phones, jewelry, household appliances, two low-frequency point-to-point handies, backpacks, clothing, and a 9-millimeter pistol with the numbers erased were also seized.
On Wednesday night, the detainees were investigated by the prosecutor Ferrari.
MG
