Two federal police officers charged with robbery and kidnapping in false search warrant in Córdoba
Federal justice in Córdoba has formalised charges against two PFA officers for a fraudulent operation in the Pueyrredón neighbourhood. They are accused of embezzlement, extortion, aggravated robbery and aggravated coercive kidnapping.
PFA officers face five charges for simulating judicial search warrant in Córdoba
Federal prosecutor Maximiliano Hairabedian formalised charges this week against Matías Mercado and Emanuel Guardia, two officers of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) detained for robbery committed under the guise of a search warrant at a residence in the Pueyrredón neighbourhood in the city of Córdoba. Perfil.com reported this based on proceedings in federal courts.
Both men were attributed five offences: embezzlement, violation of domicile, extortion, aggravated robbery and aggravated coercive kidnapping. The accumulation of charges significantly worsens their procedural situation.
The charges were formalised roughly two weeks after the arrests. The operation leading to their capture combined analysis of security cameras in the area, geolocation tracking of the official vehicle used in the incident, and verification that the vehicle's mileage had been tampered with to conceal its movement on the day of the robbery.
The charge of aggravated coercive kidnapping is, for now, the most serious in the proceedings. It points directly to the situation experienced by the owner of the residence and her minor children during the procedure, who were restrained by the group whilst the suspects searched the property.
The extortion charge is linked to the use of the false judicial search warrant to force entry and the surrender of goods. The violation of domicile charge relates to access without a genuine judicial order. The aggravated robbery charge stems from a haul which, according to the investigation, exceeded 30 million pesos, in addition to jewellery and other valuable objects, obtained with damage to the residence in the search for a safe deposit box that the owners claim did not exist. Embezzlement, meanwhile, refers to the improper use of the vehicle and official resources of the force to commit the act.
Despite the speed of the judicial investigation, no police or government authority has publicly commented on the case. The Córdoba delegation of the PFA issued no statement following the formalisation of the charges. Nor did the head of the Central Region, senior commissioner Fabio Ascona, or the nation's Security Minister, Alejandra Monteoliva.
The institutional silence occurs in a context that worsens the situation of the delegation: the scandal is added to other cases of corruption affecting the same office in recent weeks, including one investigating former head of the Anti-Drug Section, Alejandro Falcón, and three other officers charged with aggravated theft, embezzlement and acceptance of bribes.
The judicial investigation is advancing in the identification of the two other suspects who participated in the operation. The telephones of the accused, already seized, were found to contain no relevant data: according to judicial sources, the devices had been changed during the week prior to the robbery.
Source: Google News AR — Crime