Global Courant
Last Thursday, September 21, 17 years have passed since one of the most emblematic drug crimes in history: that of Liliana Ledesma (37), who was stabbed to death in Salvador Mazza for undermining the power of the brothers Delfín (55) and Raúl (41). ) denounced. Castedo, absolute owner of the cocaine trade on the Argentine-Bolivian border.
It wasn’t just another anniversary.
The appointment fell in the middle of the murder hearing in which the two castedos are accused. The debate had been paused seven times for reasons ranging from the COVID pandemic to defense resources.
But the eighth time was the charm. After a motion by the prosecutor to dismiss the court and another motion by the defense for an annulment (both denied), the witnesses began marching without pause. The defendant witnessed the hearings at Ezeiza Correctional Complex I. Both are housed in Module 6.
The Castedos’ plan, proposed by their lawyer Mariano Álvarez, was to travel to Orán (Salta) to attend the trial in person. But the idea of moving them halfway across the country (1,700 kilometers) – and, above all, imprisoning them in an area where they are still amassing power – was soundly rejected by the judiciary.
No long process is planned. 18 witnesses have been called to testify to the allegations. But the verdict will be important. The stars will certainly be the wiretaps of the case, because when Ledesma was murdered, Delfín Castedo and his younger brother “Ula” (as Raúl is called) were heard by the federal judge.
Liliana Ledesma was murdered in 2006.
For the prosecution, it was the Castedos who ordered the murder. There have already been four life sentences for the authors of the material in the case. The verdict was handed down in 2010 against Casimiro “Nene” Torres, Lino Ademar “El Chaqueño” Moreno, Aníbal Tárraga and María Gabriela Aparicio. The latter was the sister of provincial deputy Ernesto Aparicio, who was the main shareholder of the Castedos until his death in 2013.
This 2010 verdict was in the headlines again a few weeks ago because one of the convicts at the time, Lino “El Chaqueño” Moreno, escaped after failing to return from a temporary exit approved by the judiciary.
The official history of the Salta Penitentiary Service states that Reynaldo Ruiz appeared in Unit No. 3 of Orán on the afternoon of last Sunday, June 18th. The man reported that his nephew, Lino Ademar Moreno, 42, left his Dorrego Street home at 11 a.m. and did not return. The man – his nephew’s legal guardian – handed him his relative’s backpack, turned around and left.
The fall of Delfín Castedo, who had been a fugitive from justice for 10 years.
In 2021, after completing his 15-year sentence, “El Chaqueño” began requesting temporary releases, citing his “Conduct #10” and “Exemplary Concept #9” in prison reports.
Despite the objections of the prosecutor and the complaint – represented by lawyer David Leiva – they were upheld. He was allowed to leave prison on one Sunday a month (of his choice) to go to his uncle’s house from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., without being able to move from there or make stops between the prison and his guardian’s house . And one Sunday he didn’t return to prison.
Who are the Castedos?
Drug trafficking experts have no doubt: Delfín Castedo is one of the biggest drug traffickers in Argentina and, like other bosses, his power remains behind bars. His clan is to be feared.
In Delfín’s case, he managed to remain on the run for ten years until his fall in 2016. He has been in prison ever since. His brother “Ula” was arrested in Bolivia in 2007 and convicted there. Only after serving his prison sentence in Bolivia was he extradited to Argentina in 2017.
In addition to the case for the murder of Liliana Ledesma, Delfín Castedo has a case pending in La Plata, where he is accused of being the owner of almost a ton of cocaine, which was hijacked in 2013 in a van parked under Avenida 9 de Julio. He had sold it to a band of Colombians who lived in Northern Delta.
A wheel of cocaine with the seal of Delfín Castedo’s drug clan.
The brothers were already convicted on July 22, 2016 for illicit association (for the purpose of drug trafficking) and money laundering. The verdict was handed down by Salta judges Federico Santiago Díaz, Mario Juárez Almaraz and Marta Snopek.
Delfín was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In the same eight-page ruling, judges at Salta’s Federal Court No. 1 convicted six other members of the band. Among them “Ula” Castedo and his wife Melba Araujo (46), mother of his daughters. The first was sentenced to 9 years in prison, the second to 5 years.
A far from insignificant detail of this judgment is point 11, which orders the confiscation of the field known as “El Aybal”, which borders the border line with Bolivia, for the benefit of the nation-state.
The farm covers 19,954 hectares and – together with another called “El Pajeal” – served as a gateway for the cocaine brought by Mario Morfulis. This man is the husband of Roxana Castedo, Delfín’s sister, who appears as the owner of a field on the border with Aybal on the Bolivian side.
It is precisely the monopoly of lands on the Argentine-Bolivian border that Liliana Ledesma denounced at the time. And that cost him his life.
Liliana knew exactly what was happening in the area. Her husband, the Bolivian Gilberto Villagómez Arancibia, had been a partner of Castedo and Congressman Aparicio until a rift occurred.
The man met a terrible end: he was shot on July 3, 1999.
