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The Federal Oral Court of Paraná, Entre Ríos, sentenced three missionaries on Wednesday for transporting 8,913 ecstasy pills and MDMA powder. Héctor Fernando Seles (23) was sentenced to 7 years and 2 months in prison, while Alexis Da Silva (27) must serve 6 years and 2 months and Lucas Claudio Da Silva (22) received a sentence of 4 years and 2 months.
It was the conclusion of an investigation that began on December 27, 2022, when personnel from the Entre Ríos Police carried out a vehicle check at kilometer 341 of the General Artigas Highway, in the Federación department, a circumstance in which they stopped the march. of a Volkswagen Saveiro that was driven by Alexis Da Silva, who was accompanied by his brother Lucas, natives of Bernardo de Irigoyen.
A dog trained to search for drugs marked the rear bumper of the truck. Thus they discovered 7,343 kilos of ecstasy in pills and MDMA powder.
Subsequently, the expertise on Alexis Da Silva’s cell phone made it possible to identify Seles, also from Bernardo de Irigoyen, initially accused of acting as a “pointer” or “bellman.”
The federal judge of Concordia Analía Ramponi prosecuted the three for the crime of transporting narcotics aggravated by the intervention of three or more people.
Among the evidence collected throughout the file, a series of wiretaps stand out that support the accusation. The defensive claims were rejected in different instances and the case was brought to trial.
According to Entre Ríos media, in his statement prosecutor Juan José Candiotti accused the missionaries of organized transportation of narcotics and requested sentences of between 7 and 5 years in prison, emphasizing the damage caused by ecstasy as a lethal substance.
For the prosecution, Seles was the ideologue of the trafficking of synthetic substances and for this he received the greatest sentence.
“From the Public Prosecutor’s Office we consider that the responsibilities of the three people were proven and they should be sentenced to sentences of 7 and a half years in prison, from there onwards. Fernando Seles, to whom the court imposed a sentence of 7 years and 2 months in prison, was the most responsible because he was the one who had organized the transportation of these substances, he connected with suppliers in Brazil, the recipients of the substances in Buenos Aires and he committed the transport accompanying the Saveiro van, in which almost 9,000 ecstasy pills had been kidnapped, that is, it was a large-scale criminal enterprise that could not go unpunished,” Candiotti said.
He described Seles as “the most responsible, because despite not having the narcotic with him, he was the one who had devised the entire criminal network. The investigation that led to the court’s conviction, the important thing had been to be able to find this person who also made the journey, but in another vehicle, serving as a guide, companion and providing the capital to carry out this action.”
For his part, assistant prosecutor Juan Podhayni highlighted that “it is a sentence that not only satisfies the Prosecutor’s Office’s claim, since it was very close to the requested sentences, but it is a sentence that reflects the magnitude of this fact. We are talking about a shipment worth $250,000 and that was organizedly acquired in one of the largest production hubs for this type of synthetic and lethal drug substance in Latin America.”
