May 2022. A Brazilian diver dies and is found off the coast of Newcastle, Australia, along with a waterproof bag with 50 kilos of cocaine. The drugs were traveling on a grain ship that had been in San Lorenzo, Argentina. He is not just any diver: he has sophisticated and expensive equipment that allows him not to be noticed. Go down to depths for long periods of time and, thanks to a closed circuit used for special and military operations, not emit bubbles. Someone invested a lot of money to equip that human submarine. But something went wrong.
November 2023. A blue and white Regnicoli 80 boat with a Yamaha 115 HP four-stroke engine is abandoned by two people on the coast of Puerto Norte, Rosario, on the Paraná River. They leave behind 75 bricks with 82 kilos of cocaine. Another 27 kilos appear in black bags about 20 kilometers downstream. There are more than 100 kilos of drugs with a purity of between 92 and 94 percent.. It has a seal of quality: the photo of the iconic character “Tony Montana” from the movie “Scarface”. They were going to be loaded onto another ship to go out into the world. But something went wrong.
A year and a half apart, the two scenes in very distant areas of the globe are part of a matrix that appears in court cases and repeats some points. The first is the appearance of the coasts of Paraná and the ports of Gran Rosario as a nerve center for global drug trafficking. The second is that, like any company, the movement of illegal shipments that increase in value as they cross borders includes unforeseen events. In this business, the profitability is so high that million-dollar investments, such as military diving equipment or boats, as well as human lives, are lost along the way.
Deaths and spectacular drug shipments are difficult to hide. These episodes attract the attention of those who should be mocked, such as agents of the different States, Customs, the DEA and other organizations. So business owners must think of new ways to connect supply with demand.
Due to this dynamic, the forms of drug trafficking mutate. In this report based on various judicial files, which consists of this summary note and three others with more details for each modality, some of the mechanics known so far in the region are presented.
Contaminate cargo or camouflage on ships
According to the investigations that generated the two scenes described at the beginning of this note, the Brazilian diver was part of a gang that was dedicated to sneaking drugs onto interoceanic ships. This modality in ships that left or passed through Santa Fe ports implies a difficult maneuver to avoid any port control. Consists in attach the packages at a point of origin in a compartment called “chest or sea box” to remove them at the place of arrival.
On the other hand, the follow-up of the clues left by those involved in the abandoned drug boat in Puerto Norte indicates that they were going to carry out a maneuver on a ship in roadstead (parked). The hypothesis is that they were going to put the bags and then hide them inside.
These are two variants to incorporate the prohibited substance into the ship. Other alternatives used by global networks are the “blind hook” on the outside or inside of the cargo.
The first alternative occurred in 2022 in the recognized cause of the Puerto Rosario Terminal (TPR). At the local port, the customs seals of the container that was in the TPR fiscal warehouse were broken to throwing bags of drugs on top of tons of peanuts. To close the maneuver, seals very similar to those violated were placed.
The “blind hook” or “rip off” inside implies contamination of the load. The more than 1,500 kilos of cocaine found in a warehouse in Empalme Graneros in August 2022 evidenced this mechanism.
Then, The bricks were introduced into the corn pellets that had Spain as their final destination. The drugs left on planes from Colombia or Peru with the Louis Vuitton logo. They were moved along the routes to three warehouses in Rosario, where the “conditioning” was carried out. (see more detail in separate note). But what are they and how do those air and land routes that enabled the arrival of that drug to the city work?
Freights that bomb or descend on runways
At one end of air freight traffic, the mechanics are similar. Packages with drugs are loaded onto a small plane that leaves from Bolivia, Paraguay or Colombia, depending on the supplier. But at the destination point, the variants adapt to the logic of each band.
Always according to the survey carried out in different investigations, There are three main modalities to reduce loads in the region. One is the descent of the plane in a clandestine track which is usually a little traveled rural road.
One of those trips was recorded by a gang member’s cell phone while waiting in a van. It was an unpublished document and evidence presented in a trial to illustrate how this mechanic works. (see more details in separate note).
But light aircraft are also used to drop off bricks of marijuana or cocaine without having to touch the ground. Dropping the drug from the air so that someone on the ground can pick it up is called “bombing” in the slang. This illegal task exists, it occurs in the province of Santa Fe and charges about 300 thousand dollars for freight.
There is a third variant proven in judicial cases. It has been confirmed the descent of a small plane at airfields with hangars or even private fields, Without going any further it happened in a country house in Oliveros.
From the borders to the city warehouses
Once the drug touches Argentine soil from the air, it is introduced by land through the border crossings in the northern region or the coasts of the Paraná River on the coast. From that moment on, it begins a post route that crosses rural roads, highways and provincial and national routes.
The vehicles used by criminal organizations are from high displacement motorcycles, cars, vans and trucks that were previously conditioned for the transportation of drugs.
The packages are hidden in compartments and The logistics system is divided into drivers, custodians and lookouts who warn about the presence of security force checkpoints or suspicious movements along the route.
Last April, the federal Justice of Rosario participated in joint proceedings with the federal Justice of Salta against a gang that passed 5 or 10 kilo packages of drugs across the border with Bolivia. It was “cooled” in safe storage places and later transported by motorcycle to the south of Santa Fe. and Buenos Aires territory through national routes 34 and 33.
The role of national routes in land traffic was documented in another investigation linked to the Alvarado clan. They brought shipments of narcotics in trucks from northern Argentina to the south of Santa Fe.
Another example is the transfer of drugs by car from the province of Buenos Aires and the south of Santa Fe via national route 33 and the highway that unites both jurisdictions, which has been documented by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office No. 3 of Rosario. Near Ramallo, investigators intercepted a cell of a gang with more than 20 kilos of cocaine that were being transported by car to Rosario.
Once in the city, the alleged structure supplied the Los Monos sales points in the southwest area with drugs that came from Buenos Aires territory. That is to say, an inverse path to that seen in most cases, where the drugs first pass through Rosario and then continue their transit to Buenos Aires (see more details in a separate note).
In any direction, the last link is also detached from the land route until the points of micro-trafficking or drug dealing in the neighborhoods. It is a minor portion, almost a change, compared to the money that moves the great global business. However, this face-to-face sale that parcels out and disputes the territories generates the greatest amount of violence and social drama that is seen, for example, in the streets of Rosario.
That is why it is important to understand the business mechanics behind global drug trafficking and not just focus on the visible superficial effects. A way to approach the true dimension and scale of the problem. learn to see the long tentacles of a business that extends through water, air and land.
