The condemned drug boss Esteban Lindor Alvarado, currently imprisoned in the Ezeiza federal prison, whose communications from the prison complex were restricted by the national government – the resolution was published last Tuesday in the Official Gazette – faces a new criminal case. The provincial prosecutors Marisol Fabbro and Miguel Moreno promoted 43 raids that were carried out in Gran Rosario and in the city of Córdoba for an investigation into an alleged structure that apparently carried out money laundering maneuvers under the directives of the inmate. Five people were arrested with 7 million pesos, 140 thousand dollars, a 32 caliber revolver, a 16 caliber shotgun, a 22 caliber pistol, a carbine of the same caliber and a replica pistol.
The head of the Investigative Police, Natalio Marciani, indicated to Channel 3 that 39 operations were carried out in Rosario, San Lorenzo, Pérez, Soldini, Roldán, Capitán Bermúdez and Granadero Baigorria. The other four took place in the capital of Córdoba. “All the detainees are from Rosario. This is an investigation that has been going on for months. We can say that these people put vehicles, the product of illicit activity, into the legal market,” he added.
Marciani pointed out that part of the raids were carried out in sheds and garages that people under suspicion used to hide stolen cars. One of the parking lots is in Puerto Norte, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Rosario. “They left them there to cool until they had no problems. Once they ‘papered’ them, they later put them on the market. We are talking about high-end vehicles. Some of the maneuvers were done to order. That is why raids were also carried out in Córdoba, because it was detected that some vehicles came from there,” he concluded.
In Mendoza at 7200, one of the homes raided in Rosario, a Gustavo Armando “Tuerto” Cárdenas, a 53-year-old man who in 2019 was sentenced by Federal Oral Court No. 2 to 9 years in prison as the organizer of a gang dedicated to the retail sale of drugs in the northwest area of the city. On his property, the Investigative Police seized 7 million pesos, 130 thousand dollars and a cell phone that will be sent for expert examination.
Cárdenas has a history in the underworld. He had been arrested in October 2014 at a gas station for being accused of a crime committed in 2012 a few meters from the 17th police station in Fisherton. After obtaining house arrest, he was raided again in April 2015 by the Federal Police and the Airport Security Police for being suspected of leading an organization dedicated to the marketing of narcotics, a case for which he received 9 years.
The mega-operation against Alvarado takes place after it was mentioned in the indictment hearing by the attacks and crimes considered “narcoterrorist” that occurred last March in Rosario. The body of prosecutors in charge of the investigations pointed to him and the convicted drug boss Claudio Javier “Morocho” Mansilla as two probable instigators of some attacks, although they were not charged because they did not find evidence that directly linked them.
The information that Alvarado and Mansilla could be linked to the events arose from the informative statement of the non-punishable minor who, according to prosecutors, carried out the crime of taxi driver Héctor Raúl Figueroa (March 5) and beachgoer Bruno Bussanich (March 10). The 15-year-old teenager was the one who claimed that through a third party he received a video call from a prisoner housed in a federal prison, who gave the instructions to commit the homicide at the Puma service station.
Due to this situation, the government published a resolution on Tuesday of this week in the Official Gazette to restrict communications between the two inmates, which are in Ezeiza. Through this measure – which has an extension, in principle, for 30 days – they can only call their defenders from the pavilion’s landline.
