Last May 3, at 2:40 in the morning, the Police carried out a spectacular raid on two homes in Plottier, detained a person and seized a large number of items that they linked to several crimes. It was within the framework of an investigation that had been going on for almost a year into half a dozen robberies committed by a gang between October 2022 and May 2023. That procedure has now been declared null and void by a judge. since constitutional guarantees were violated, and the entire investigation was on the verge of shipwreck.
The case is being handled by the Robbery and Theft Prosecutor’s Office. The new boss, Mauricio Zabala, anticipated that he will present an appeal before the Court of Appeal with the aim of resurrecting the raid and be able to use the seized items as evidence. some even They have already been returned to the victims of the robberies.
The sequence begins with the prosecutor of the case Horacio Maitini, who carries out a generic investigation for a series of robberies, among others those committed on August 8, 22 to a distributor; on October 8, 22 to a company that sells tires; on January 1, 23 to a beverage distributor; on February 12, 23 to a family and on April 19 to a deposit from the Judicial Branch. They stole money, appliances and vehicles.
Only at night
All of them would have been committed by the same gang, made up of five or six people. It was necessary to arrest one, which was reached through an anonymous complaint via Facebook. This is a 37-year-old man with an arrest warrant from the province of Río Negro.
The Police discovered that the individual arrived at a house in Plottier at 7 p.m. and left at 5 in the morning. With that argument, she based a search request at night time. The Constitution of the province prohibits raiding after 7 p.m. and before 7 a.m., with exceptions.
The authorization for the raid was signed by Guarantees Judge Luciano Hermosilla, the operation was carried out on May 3 at 2:40 in the presence of prosecutor Maitini, the man was detained and a large number of items were seized from him in that home and another adjoining.
The defense approach
On June 3, the suspect’s defender Melina Pozzer requested that the raid be annulled for several reasons. One of them, “the prosecution did not give reasons of seriousness and urgency” to be done at dawn. Another: the Procedural Code establishes that the judge who authorizes a procedure at that time “must record of the emergency situation”, and Hermosilla did not do it.
What’s more, the form that the magistrate completed reads: “the measure must be carried out during legal hourswhich is contradictory to the exceptional schedule.
The return of objects
The lawyer also objected that “the prosecution, in a procedure where the defense did not have any type of intervention, began to carry out some return of objects “that they were not authorized to kidnap.”
The situation is unusual. In the man’s possession they found a ring and a computer that were already delivered to their owners because they recognized them.
They also seized jewelry that was the product of a jewelry store robbery, but the individual is not accused of committing a robbery against a business in that sector. Yes, a relative of yours is.
Why was it null?
Guarantees Judge Marco Lupica Cristo declared the raid null and void “due to the multiple irregularities that make it invalid.”
He noted that the prosecution “did not demonstrate the seriousness or urgency of the situation. It did not demonstrate that obtaining evidence during the day “It would have been impossible or without possible effectiveness.”.
He mentioned “lack of adequate justification for the nighttime raid; lack of specificity in the search warrant; kidnapping of items not contemplated and irregularity in their return; violation of due process and specific harm to the accused.
Chief prosecutor Mauricio Zabala told RÍO NEGRO newspaper who will present the challenge. If the Court of Appeal declares it admissible, it will be that body that will define the fate of this investigation. In the meantime, the situation will remain frozen.
