Torres was raided on August 10, 2022 at his home in Puerto Gaboto by the ordinary justice system in the context of a case of gender violence, a complaint filed by his ex-partner after being threatened with a firearm by the stallholder. Airaldi employee, revealed journalist Héctor Martín Galiano, in a report for Ahora.
It was then that Investigative Police agents raided Torres’ house. The accused was not in his home, but the police found under a double bed that was in the accused’s room, 28 compact packages wrapped in blue packing tape. On his forehead he had a photo of an Emirates plane under which he read: QATAR. Officially, the resident and wanted person was not there that day. But a Toyota Hilux was detected in front of the house, owned by Adrián Claudio Bruno, a regional drug trafficker who operated in the area of the Santa Fe coast, he even placed his drugs in the Centenario neighborhood of the provincial capital. He was later arrested as part of an investigation that corroborated the existence of a drug gang, led by Bruno and made up of several people. That file has been in the Oral Court of Santa Fe since last May 3.
federal process
With the intervention of the federal justice system, a special brigade from Los Pumas (rural police) was ordered to carry out a thorough inspection of the area of islands where Torres apparently worked as a cattle rancher. This is how it was established that between kilometers 476 and 488 of the Paraná River, Leonardo Airaldi had properties.
The investigation included interviews with locals who confirmed that Airaldi had control over the land and that, “around those days” they saw a barge downstream – in the Puerto San Martín area – making very suspicious movements. The hypothesis was reinforced in November 2022 when a person appeared at the MPA prosecutor’s office in charge of Aquiles Balbis (who investigated the case for gender violence) to say that he knew Torres, that he contacted him to purchase calves and that On one occasion, he took him to the islands to show him the estate. “I had a large stall in the “Boca de Julio” and another smaller one inside… I stopped going there in July (2022) when I went to the island to compare calves with my son and my wife and suddenly he received a call and could very nervous. He cut off the call and told me that he had to go urgently to look for goods in Diamante. I thought he was messing with me, because he used to say that he had the goods ready when he was referring to the cows (…) that day he left and we stayed at the stall as my wife and my son. When he returned on the boat he arrived with a large package in a black bag all wrapped up. He asked me to accompany him to Puerto Gaboto to carry the package. That’s when I realized it wasn’t a joke. I told him no, I stayed at the ranch with my family and we waited for him to return, it took about two hours. Then we returned to Puerto Gaboto and I stopped visiting it. At the same time I found out about the raid,” he said.
-Do you know where Torres went in Diamante? -asked the prosecutor.
-To the stay of his boss, who is Airaldi. You can reach the coast by water and then you have about 6 kilometers on foot. I never went, Torres told me that, he even commented that there was a runway for landing small planes. Once he told me that Prefecture raced him on a rubber boat, but it is impossible to catch him, he has a 150 HP Mercury motor boat, he can travel 90 kilometers on the river.
At that time, specifically in July 2022, Airaldi was arrested in Rosario, while he was traveling through Gorriti at 5,600 around 3 in the morning. Gendarmerie personnel stopped the Amarok driven by the diamond man, who was accompanied by three people. The truck was searched and weapons, ammunition, some drugs and a lot of money were found. Airaldi then rehearsed a defense: “I am an inorganic Intelligence staff of the Entre Ríos Police.” Nobody believed it, although it would later be proven that his ties with the Entre Ríos police force were and continue to be fluid. Very important were the six phones seized that morning in Rosario, assessed by the Criminal Intelligence Directorate of the Paraná Delegation of the Naval Prefecture. The conversations served as the basis for the federal judge of Paraná, Leandro Ríos, to prosecute Airaldi and 17 other people last April for the crime of drug trafficking within the framework of a criminal enterprise.
The same Amarok that Airaldi was driving was identified – and then detained – in December of last year by the Entre Ríos Investigative Police in the framework of a case for drug trafficking and money laundering in which Miguel Ángel “Mameluco” Villalba was the main investigator. , charged in the federal court of San Martín, in the province of Buenos Aires.
“El Pillo Sociedad Anónima”
In the investigation of prosecutor Rodríguez, several reports from Los Pumas were provided in which Airaldi is identified as the head of the El Pillo SA Company. Another reference that brings the investigated person closer to the geography he controls. “El Pillo” is the name of the island under his domain that is in the jurisdiction of Victoria. In several telephone communications Airaldi speaks with “Sole”, who would be his personal secretary. In an exchange of messages, “Leo” asks “Sole” to “make arrangements with the employees who need to be secured.” He then sends a couple of photos and especially the one of the Torres document. Soledad also used a phone number registered on Airaldi’s iPhone as “Puerto Cabañas Las Cuevas.”
There are numerous text messages in which the two main people investigated in this case exchange data in code: “take the new boat and say that you can’t take people, at most one person, that boat is strong, you can take a 450-kilo steer.” and nothing happens”. He advises Airaldi to Torres in a communication recorded on June 15, 2022, at five in the afternoon.
In relation to Los Pillos SA, the Prosecutor’s Office hypothesis is that it is a legal entity that controls Airaldi without appearing on paper. According to the Official Gazette, on October 12, 2021, the company held an Assembly to replace authorities. Tanya Gisel Kranevitter was appointed President and Francisco Rouillón was appointed Alternate Director, both with tax domicile in an apartment at 1300 Corrientes Avenue, in the Federal Capital. Gisel Kranevitter, Airaldi’s former partner, is being prosecuted by the federal judge of Paraná Leandro Ríos. Rouillón is a member of the Rosario Stock Exchange, admitted in July 2021, according to the formal note from the Stock Exchange that he himself uploaded to a social network. El Pillo SA has declared itself to be dedicated “to the raising of cattle, except for that carried out in cabins and for milk production, in addition to animal husbandry, agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing.” A different address is added to the one mentioned above: Charlone 971, also in CABA
The gaucho boss of the drug gang
Airaldi has been imprisoned in the Paraná prison since last March 8, when he was detained along with other people based on a request for multiple raids and arrests ordered by federal judge Leandro Ríos. The magistrate prosecuted 18 people a month later. The former leader of the Rural Diamond Society was accused of being an organizer and financier of the drug trade. The rest were prosecuted for aggravated commerce for being part of a criminal enterprise of three or more people.
Leonardo Roberto Airaldi, Jimena Irupe Burne (one of the people who was in the Amarok on the day of the procedure in Rosario), Armando Marcelo Balcaza, Sebastián Agustín Armocida, Juan Andrés Erbes, Roberto Fabián Coronel and Walter Olivero (police of the province of Santa Faith) will remain in prison. The rest, among whom is Gisel Kranevitter, will continue the process in a state of freedom.
