This is the smartwatch Esteban Alvarado used to plan his helicopter escape

Last Friday, Esteban Lindor Alvarado, one of Rosario’s bosses the most feared, sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking and homicide, saw the most delirious plan of his criminal career frustrated: escape from Ezeiza prison by helicopter. The plane, a Robinson R44 Raven that would depart from Gualeguaychú, would hover for a few seconds the courtyard of pavilion E of module 3 where Alvarado was held. Later he would be taken to a field of General Rodríguez, where an armed commando was waiting for him to continue his escape.

Alvarado had spent months planning with his contacts, with an estimated investment of half a million dollars. The WhatsApp conversations with his main contact, “Lobo”, his pilot and head of logistics, were decisive. There PROCUREMENT, the sector of the prosecutor’s office that investigates drug trafficking crimes, managed to access these conversations after a snitch revealed the maneuver. The telephone with which Alvarado spoke was not his only tool. He also used a smartwatch, which he didn’t exactly wear on his wrist. Investigators found him last Friday, buried in the prison yard, wrapped in a bag.

“In theory, the watch was connected to his phone. Thus, he could send messages from the watch. From the patio, he could send messages with the watch as a relay. The network connection was on the phone, with the phone connected to the watch,” says a key researcher.

The device will be appraised: Prosecutors in the case are awaiting the results of the forensic extraction.

You may be interested: They suspect that drug lord Alan Funes was going to escape with Lindor Alvarado in the helicopter from Ezeiza prison

In his investigation this week before the federal judge assigned to the case, Ernesto Kreplak, Alvarado denied his part in the plan. He gave generic answers, refused to answer questions, said nothing of value or that could guide the rest of his accomplices. The conversations that form part of the case speak of a second man who would flee with him, who would have an orange football shirt or a jersey when he landed in the helicopter.

Today, Justice considers that this second man would have been Alan Elio Funes, another convicted drug lord with whom Alvarado shared a lodge in Ezeiza. The data comes from wiretaps and images captured by the Federal Prison Service – which actively participated in the operation – on March 10, the date of the frustrated escape plan. There, Funes can be seen wearing an orange garment under a black soccer jersey.

Almost simultaneously with the discovery of the telephone in the well, detectives from the PFA Superintendence of Dangerous Drugs were spying in Gualeyguachú on the take-off site of the helicopter, marked a few days before. Thus, they managed to film the plane in full flight.

Alvarado’s plans changed midway. The drug lord planned to execute the escape on Friday, March 3. Coincidentally, that day there was a search of the Ezeiza prison by order of the prosecutors of Rosario Matias Edery and Luis Schiappa Pietra, which requested the investigation procedure on prisoners Leandro “Pollo” Vinardi, Nicolás “Pupito” Avalle and Damián “Toro” Escobar, members of Los Monos. As the helicopters that flew over the Ezeiza complex were used for this operation, Alvarado himself contacted “Lobo” to postpone the plan. Discussions between Alvarado and his pilot that appear in case documents investigating his escape begin the following day, March 4.

Today, Alvarado is still locked up in Ezeiza prison. His new teammate is Mario Segovia, nicknamed “The King of Ephedrine”, one of the most important criminals in the entire Argentine penitentiary system., accused of having come up with a plan almost as audacious as fleeing in a helicopter. Two years ago, Segovia was investigated for setting up an international scheme to import bombs and machine guns from a tablet in his cell.

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