Global Courant 2023-05-03 01:42:54
A criminal organization related to drug trafficking rarely seen, with seven jewelry stores, an antique store, and two nightclubs that served as a front to buy dollars. Secret doors and hidden corridors to hide the money and 51 raids that ended with eight people arrested completed a combo with few precedents.
It happened in Mendoza, after a long investigation that included the police and the General Directorate of Customs. In this way, in the last hours it was found that the organization in question had formed a structure with a deep degree of integration, for which the Justice ordered the raids.
Thus it was discovered that the organization had, on the one hand, accounting studies and financial caves dedicated to the sale of foreign currency without the proper authorization of the BCRA.
Joint raid by Customs and Mendoza Police.
On the other, it had numerous stores that functioned as screens for currency laundering: at least 7 jewelry stores, an antique store, a bar, and two nightclubs. In the latter, it was also discovered that there was a sale of drugs.
But not only that. In the midst of the proceedings, the authorities warned that different traps had been built in the jewelry stores, something like hidden enclosures created from false walls, double bottoms and hidden spaces in furniture, which had electronic locks to hide money from possible judicial measures.
In addition, 6 of the stores were closed for engaging in items other than those for which they had been authorized.
Joint raid by Customs and Mendoza Police.
It all ended with the arrest of eight people. Two of them had ties to the Mendoza Police. One, as a retired officer of the force, provided security services at premises associated with the gang. The other, on the contrary, was serving as an active officer.
The investigation established that it periodically charged a sum of money to the criminal organization as cover against risks to which it might be exposed (such as controls and procedures) even from other forces.
Joint raid by Customs and Mendoza Police.
The raids ended with the kidnapping of six vehicles, in addition to 42.5 million pesos, $160,500, three firearms, 40 money counting machines, five scales, jewelry, watches, cannabis, and MDMA.
Cash currency of various origins was also seized: 24,200 euros, 450 British pounds, 723,483 reais, as well as 2,000 Uruguayan pesos, 7,471,560 Chilean pesos, and 520 Mexican pesos.
They found dead a former head of Customs, suspected of smuggling ketamine
The former administrator of the Paso de los Libres Customs, Cristina del Valle Castillo, was found dead in her home in Santa Fe, weeks after being arrested in Brazil with contraband goods. It is also being investigated whether there was a game of “ketamine” among her belongings.
At the end of March, a domestic employee was unable to enter the house of the former official in Sauce Viejo, Santa Fe. So, she called her daughter who, with the help of a neighbor, entered through the window and “into one of the bathrooms in the house, located in Sauce Viejo, sitting leaning forward, no longer vital signs”.
According to the Santa Fe media, the deceased former official had had a “strong discussion” with unknown persons a few days before. A Santa Fe prosecutor investigates the case as a dubious death and under summary secrecy.
When she was arrested in Brazil on January 16, Del Valle Castillo identified herself as the head of the Paso De Los Libres Customs, but when the police asked her to check the truck, she got nervous and refused to open the doors of the Nissan.
He then agreed to open the vehicle and the police found merchandise hidden in black bags. They seized her items, seized her official vehicle, and let her leave after opening an investigation.
In the Nissan, an official AFIP car that she was driving when she was arrested in Brazil, she was seized “cymbals, drums, cell phones, Italian shoe lasts, veterinary supplies, brushes, slippers, and items intended for a troupe, all of that in quantity.” considerable”, says an official report from the Brazilian police to which this newspaper accessed.
In that report you see syringes for horses and another one under the heading “equine medication packet”. The syringes could have contained semen for racehorses and the drugs could have been ketamine. Customs sources specified that Brazilian Customs “has not yet sent an official report” confirming the presence of the drug among the goods.
DB
