Venezuelan fugitive captured in Bolivia in connection with Argentina's largest synthetic drug seizure
A fugitive Venezuelan was detained in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and deported by Interpol to Argentina in connection with the case of 52 kilograms of MDMA found at the port of Zárate.
Venezuelan fugitive handed over to Argentine justice after being detained in Bolivia
The Federal Investigation Department (DFI) of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) has in custody a Venezuelan citizen detained in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and deported by Interpol Bolivia to Argentine territory. According to lanacion.com.ar, the man is one of the fugitives in the case considered by the Argentine Government to be the largest seizure of synthetic drugs in the country's criminal history: the 52 kilograms of MDMA—the base for manufacturing ecstasy pills—found hidden in an Opel Combo van imported from Belgium and abandoned for nearly a year at the port of Zárate.
According to sources from the federal security force, the detainee was reportedly responsible for obtaining access to a workshop located on Iberá Street at number 5900, in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Villa Urquiza, with the aim of dismantling the vehicle. Within its recesses, the Opel Combo concealed material sufficient to produce one million ecstasy pills, a haul from which the criminal organisation would reportedly have obtained a profit of more than 16 million dollars. The same sources also indicated that the suspect had been in the area of the Zárate port monitoring the operation to deliver the van.
Undercover operation with DEA intervention
The case has as a key precedent information provided in March of this year by a DEA agent, who alerted Argentine authorities about the vehicle's illicit cargo. By order of the Economic Criminal judge Gustavo Meirovich, and with the intervention of the Narcocrimes Prosecution (Procunar) led by prosecutor Diego Iglesias, the methylenedioxymethamphetamine was replaced with a harmless substance. An undercover agent convinced members of the organisation that he had the necessary contacts to remove the vehicle from the port.
The undercover agent established contact with the main local logistics operators, managed money advances and facilitated the presence of key actors in the trafficking operation. The manoeuvre led to the detention, last week, of three people: Ángel Reynaldo Guerra, a man from Salta who worked as a sushi chef for years in a restaurant in Playa del Carmen; Luis Enrique Corona Ortiz, a Mexican identified as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and Edwin Wladimir Ríos Soto, a Venezuelan who was driving the van in which the trafficker was travelling.
Deportation from Bolivia and transfer to Salta
Interpol Bolivia proceeded with the deportation of the Venezuelan captured in Santa Cruz de la Sierra—the same city where this year Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset was detained, currently imprisoned in the United States—after verifying his illegal entry into the country. Bolivian agents transported him to Yacuiba, on the border with Argentina.
Officials from the Anti-Drug Division San Ramón de la Nueva Orán and from the Federal Operational Unit Division (DUOF) Salvador Mazza received him in that locality in Salta. The detainee remains housed in the force's facilities until judge Meirovich orders his transfer to Buenos Aires.
It remains to identify the alleged ringleader of the operation, known by the alias "Buen Rostro", identified as the second fugitive in the framework of the case.
Source: Google News BO — Crime