The Prosecutor analyzes the opening of a PROCELAC office in Rosario to strengthen the fight against drug traffickers

The interim lawyer Eduardo Casal is currently analyzing the opening of an office of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (PROCELAC) in the city of Rosario to join the fight against drug trafficking. as much as he could tell GlobeLiveMedia, the project has been discussed for several months. In fact, there have been several negotiations, formal and informal, to obtain a physical space.

PROCELAC was created in 2012, under the administration of Alejandra Gils Carbó, and is currently headed by prosecutors Diego Velasco and María Laura Roteta. In recent years, he has played a central role in several drug trafficking cases, but also in other high-profile cases for economic crimes such as fraud Generation Zoe or the Hope Funds scandal, which has just ended with an eight-year prison sentence for businessman Enrique Blaksley.

“We have been trying to get property in Rosario for the past year,” admitted a court officer interviewed by GlobeLiveMedia. The aim is for this office to be located in the same building where the Rosario delegation of the Narcocriminal Prosecutor’s Office (PROCUNAR) already operates, which opened in 2017. Negotiations have been blocked in recent months due to tense relations between the Ministry of Justice , responsible for Martín Soria, and the Attorney General.

The PROCUNAR delegation includes an assistant prosecutor, Matías Scilabra, candidate for the post of federal prosecutor in Rosario, and four employees. In recent years, he has worked with federal and provincial prosecutors in Santa Fe to secure the arrest of Los Monos leader Ariel Máximo “Guille” Cantero., oh Esteban Lindor Alvarado, the Rosario drug lord who tried to escape by helicopter from Ezeiza prison, among other drug traffickers.

“There is no need to create a prosecutor’s post for this PROCUNAR delegation as requested by some deputies. Scilabra has the support of a whole team that works in Buenos Aires and is dedicated to this region,” explained a source from the attorney general.

A few meters from the headquarters of PROCUNAR will also open an antenna of the Information Unit (UIF). In this case, the Santa Fe government gave him a space in the Administrative entity of Puerto Rosario (Enapro). The office is operational and has furniture because until a few days ago it was occupied by the Santa Fe Investment and International Trade Agency. However, as this media announced on Sunday, the regional FIU will take months to be operational and to achieve concrete results.

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The head of the FIU, Juan Carlos Otero, already appointed a coordinator for the Rosario office, which will not be in place until April 1. Like Otero, this coordinator has a CNV background. Then 5 or 6 employees will be added. But that’s not all. The most sensitive is the implementation phase. “You have to map the situation, identify the most relevant sources and those who are not doing their job, and in the criminal part you have to rake the files with the best opportunity to present yourself as a complainant,” explained an expert. .

In the case of the PROCELAC office, there is a lack of physical space and close some budgetary aspects. But that won’t have immediate effects either.. “Money laundering investigations take a long time, although we are already working on important cases in Rosario,” a judicial source said.

Beyond the efforts to add new offices to Rosario, the demands are now going through the management of the prisons because the main drug lords are already in prison. Last week, after a meeting in which the Secretary for Institutional Coordination of the Attorney General, Juan Manuel Olima Espel; the head of PROCUNAR, Diego Iglesias, and the head of the Office of Administrative Investigations (PIA), Sergio Rodríguez, among other officials, the Office again asked the national government that action be taken in federal prisons to stop drug bosses from continuing to run the drug trade and order crimes with impunity. Among these measures, mobile phone jammers and more research in pavilions stand out.

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In reality, the claims pointed to the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS), former judge María Laura Garrigós de Rébori. As this medium was able to learn, the official would have had a certain reaction after this assertion.

“Continuing to add gendarmes to Rosario is not enough, It’s like fighting inflation only with fair prices. Controls must be reinforced in maximum security prisons and have a medium and long-term plan,” lamented a prosecutor who has followed the main cases against drug traffickers in Rosario.

In the justice of Santa Fe there are many claims, but no one dares to criticize the arrival of PROCELAC and the rest of the agencies. “The presence of the prosecutor’s units in Rosario will allow greater coordination with local prosecutors, although we have already worked well remotely,” said a senior magistrate from Rosario.

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