Man arrested in Mendoza over 2011 killing of former boxer Guillermo Romero
Security forces apprehended Lucio Gallardo Soto in Guaymallén, identified as the perpetrator of the homicide of Guillermo Romero, which occurred fifteen years ago in San Juan.
Man arrested in Mendoza over 2011 killing of former boxer Guillermo Romero
Police officers arrested Lucio Gallardo Soto in the municipality of Guaymallén, Mendoza. The man is identified as directly responsible for the killing of Guillermo Romero, a former boxer murdered in 2011 in the Colón neighbourhood of Santa Lucía, San Juan province. The arrest took place this Thursday, at a time when the judicial case was at risk of becoming statute-barred due to the passage of time.
According to reporting by Diario 13 San Juan, the detainee had active arrest warrants issued by San Juan courts. Over recent years, Gallardo Soto had managed to evade judicial control on three separate occasions after being taken into custody, including an escape from house arrest that had been imposed on him in San Juan.
Nélida Castro, the victim's wife, gave an account of the ordeal her family endured over a decade and a half. The woman stated that after the murder she had to care alone for three minors. According to her words, the development of her children—now aged 26, 30 and 31—was deeply affected by the events and by the consequences of a legal process that lasted excessively long.
Castro linked her husband's murder to a neighbourhood dispute related to drug trafficking in the area. The woman stated that Romero had acted as an undercover informant for a federal-level investigation and had gathered evidence about drug dealing that, according to complaints from residents since 2008, involved adolescents. Castro maintained that the crime was ordered when the family was about to present such evidence to the courts.
Regarding the alleged intellectual author, Martín Camargo, the widow expressed her dissatisfaction with the sentence handed down. Camargo received a twelve-year sentence but remained imprisoned for only six years, and has since regained his freedom. Castro believed the penalty should have been much more severe.
Gallardo Soto's arrest in Mendoza revives an investigation that had stalled following multiple escapes by the primary defendant.
Source: Google News PR — San Juan