Global Courant
Six people were arrested after 12 police raids in Monte Grande and Cañuelas. They are accused of being part of a criminal organization called “Las Reinas”; a family band led by a woman and made up of her sons and daughters-in-law.
Through the use of inhibitors, “Las Reinas” stole several high-end trucks in different locations in the southern suburbs, including a police patrol.
Prosecutor Ximena Santoro, in charge of the Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) 12 of Quilmes, was in charge of carrying out these raids: 10 in the town of Monte Grande and 2 in Cañuelas.
The investigation began on October 9 of last year, when several armed men intercepted a police officer who had stolen a Ford Ranger truck that was used at the Quilmes Training Center. That vehicle was found days later abandoned in Ezeiza.
Based on that case, prosecutor Santoro ordered personnel from the Superintendency for Complex Crimes and Organized Crime to carry out an investigation to establish who were the perpetrators of the act. The case worked as a spearhead.
After a series of actions, the incident was linked to a criminal organization dedicated to auto theft that operated in the towns of La Plata, Quilmes, Florencio Varela, Esteban Echeverría and Ezeiza. In the southern suburbs.
Cell phones, the key to finding “Las Reinas”
“13 kidnapped cell phones were key to discovering the gang. Thanks to the recordings of several communications, it was determined that the organization known as ‘Las Reinas’ was led by a woman, Gloria Ríos. And that the criminal network was familiar: it was integrated for their sons and daughters-in-law,” a source in the case confided.
“Where are the machines and the patents?” Ríos is heard asking in one of the calls to one of his children; the reference was to jammers used by the gang to block GPS signals from satellite tracking companies installed in vehicles.
In another of the extracted audios, the accused right-hand man of Ríos, identified as Micaela Sánchez, speaks with one of the defendants, named Matías, after stealing one of the vehicles.
“Mati, go well to the left that there is an operation (police)”; “Look, here is the ‘cap’, so be careful,” he says in two of the communications.
After months of investigation, it was established that the organization had at least 15 people dedicated to the theft, buying and selling, and “wrapping” high-end vehicles; Preferably Toyota Hilux brand vans.
How the band operated
Official sources confirmed how the Las Reinas gang operated: they stole vehicles on public roads using inhibitors, also known in the jargon as “mata bichos”, and they usually did so by force, using firearms.
“Several of the members of this organization have criminal records, as do their relatives. Among them, children and husbands, some of whom are in prison for crimes against automobile property and would have participated in the crimes through the use of cell phones from their places of confinement,” said investigative sources.
In one of the surveillance procedures carried out by the police in a house on Fortunato López street, in Monte Grande; Buenos Aires agents observed the moment when one of the suspects left the property driving a Jeep Renegade truck with an active kidnapping request, who was finally apprehended.
After that arrest, an emergency search was requested at the aforementioned address, where a stolen Toyota Hilux van was seized, and six windows with domain engraving corresponding to a Volkswagen Amarok van, also with an active kidnapping request.
On the other hand, a signal jammer containing 23 antennas was seized and had been acquired in Chile, which has state-of-the-art technology.
“Its value is around 3,700 dollars – explained a source in the case -. It must be taken into account that the greater the number of antennas, the greater the efficiency and range in the inhibition of any type of tracking and location technology equipment,” he said.
And he explained: “They are used by criminal organizations to inhibit signals from satellite tracking equipment that vehicles may have and to interrupt the centralized closing signal of the vehicles.”
In the raids carried out, seven Toyota Hilux and Jeep Renegade trucks, two engines with suppressed numbers, a motorcycle and a quadricycle were also seized.
In addition to the vehicles, two firearms and more than a thousand auto parts were seized, including fuel tanks, seats, doors, hoods, mostly belonging to Toyota brand vehicles.
“Six license plates of vehicles that had a seizure request for 2021 and 2022 were also found,” the sources concluded.
