On Wednesday, a few hours after the Guayaquil prosecutor expressed
his concern to the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, about the presence of the wife and four other relatives of the Ecuadorian drug trafficker José "Fito" Macías
, leader of the gang "Los Choneros", in Argentina, César Suárez
was riddled with bullets as he left his prosecutor's office.
After that talk with Bullrich, Suárez sent the Government
a copy of a memorandum that he had sent to the prosecutor's office of the province of Manabi,
Ecuador, in which he requested
a certification of the judicial situation of Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuáre
z.
She is Macías's wife, who had quickly gone from nurse to millionaire.
As soon as
the memo was leaked in Ecuador
, Suárez was shot.
With Suárez
there are now 7 prosecutors murdered
in that country ravaged by drug traffickers.
Bullrich was moved by the news and she couldn't believe it,
government sources told
Clarín .
Image taken from the X count of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces showing the request poster for José Adolfo Macías Villamizar, alias Fito.
Since
January 5
, the national government and the province of Córdoba knew of the presence of the family of the drug trafficker accused of last week's attempted drug coup, but
there was no Ecuadorian judicial or Interpol arrest warrant.
Then, on Monday Bullrich had the attorney general of Córdoba, Alberto Losada, and the head of the Narcocriminal Prosecutor's Office (PROCUNAR), Diego Iglesias, informed of the presence of the family, through the Federal Police,
who ordered intelligence work to be carried out.
Thus, the Macías family and its local connections began to be investigated, which allowed them, for example, to buy
a house for between 300 and 500 thousand dollars in the Valle del Golf country, in Falda del Carmen, Córdoba, without raising alarms.
The purchase would have been made through “the
Jomavi
SAS company,” which is a simplified stock company created by two Argentines, reported La Voz del Interior.
Federal prosecutors are investigating
whether there was money laundering
but they know that “it is
a minor issue compared to the threat to national security that Macías represents
.”
They only have a purchase receipt that was certified by a notary in a country that
is still a trust, which makes the investigation difficult,
judicial sources reported.
And on the ticket, which they would have paid in cash, there is a brother of the woman
who lives in Chile.
"Fito's" family occupied the property located on lot 5 of block 6 of the extensive property in the neighborhood that adjacent to the Valle Golf Club field, one of the exclusive courses designed by the company of former American golfer Jack William Nicklaus. .
However, the most worrying thing is that Peñarrieta
had already had 5 migratory transits to Argentina between August 14, 2023
and January 5, when it was his last entry, according to
a confidential report circulating within the government
.
That is, the government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner
did not issue any alert about their presence in Argentina.
A Police patrol car passes in front of the entrance to the Golf Valley, a 'country' (private neighborhood) in Malagueño, today, on the outskirts of Córdoba where the Macías were found.
In any case, judicial and intelligence sources estimate that his last admission
was coordinated with Macías's escape
from a maximum security prison in Ecuador and that the project was to keep his family away from Ecuador.
"Our hypothesis is that there was
a plan to buy the house, get the family out, and once the family was out, escape from jail
," Bullrich said Friday at a press conference.
In turn, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos confirmed that prosecutor Suárez, murdered in Guayaquil,
was investigating the family's trip to Argentina.
At first,
the government believed that the head of the Choneros cartel was also in our country
.
Two false leads were investigated
in Rosario and Greater Buenos Aires.
Bullrich and Defense Minister Luis Petri talk about “narcoterrorism” because they link Macías with an
organization called “Olver Sinisterra, a dissident of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).”
The deportation of the relatives of the Ecuadorian drug trafficker "Fito" Macías.
- Photo: Ministry of Defense
While the intelligence tasks were being carried out, confirmation of the woman's relationship with Macías “came from
an email that she had given to Migrations
and that was the subject of investigation,” said a source.
It was also striking that to go out, for example to the Patio Olmos shopping center,
they always used two trucos drivers who drove a Chevrolet Onix and a Renault 12
.
And it was strange that they rarely left the house, provided food with delivery services and gave tips in dollars.
Alberto Bietti, director of Criminal Intelligence of the Córdoba Police, said that “Ecuadorian investigators were asked to collaborate, who
provided us with images
. ”
In this way, the identities could be 100% corroborated,”
It was not easy to decide the expulsion based on an administrative resolution from Migrations.
If Peñarrieta was charged and arrested for money laundering, he would have appointed lawyers and
stayed in the country for months waiting for a judicial resolution.
Then, Bullrich and Francos decided not to ask the courts for his arrest but
to annul the temporary residence for tourists that they had for three months
.
When the woman and her relatives were notified,
“they did not object to being transferred
,” which facilitated the administrative process.
For example, the deportation of Peruvian drug trafficker Marco Estrada Gonzalez
took 4 years
.
The Macías family has ten days to appeal,
but from Ecuador
.
They can no longer re-enter Argentina.
The political decision of the expulsion was expressed in a
resolution by the Director of Migration, Sebastián Seone,
based on reports from PROCUNAR and the Attorney General's Office on the so-called
Coirón case
in Ecuador.
Another source of justice was the General Directorate of Criminal Intelligence of the Ministry of Security.
The deportation of the relatives of the Ecuadorian drug trafficker "Fito" Macías.
- Photo: Ministry of Defense
The Migration resolution, to which this newspaper had access, indicates that the Ministry of Security ratifies the information “regarding the existence of the foreigner's family in Córdoba and reports, among other issues, that the foreigner Inda Mariela Peñarrieta
accumulated properties in a few years, companies and considerable million-dollar income in her bank accounts,
being a nurse by profession.”
Then he points out that “Law No. 25,871 and its amendment establishes the conditions on the admission, entry, permanence and exit of people and establishes in its article 3 its fundamental objectives.”
And that among them, the duty is established to
"promote international order and justice, denying entry and/or permanence
in Argentine territory to people involved in acts criminally repressed by our legislation."
Finally, the resolution states that “
organized crime
is a fact that impacts the population directly
- affecting the right to live in a safe society and enjoy the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution and international treaties - as well as indirectly."
The key decision of Migrations was framed in the powers conferred “in article 29 of Law No. 25,565, in Decree No. 1410 of December 3, 1996 and Decree No. DECTO-2024-37-APN-PTE of the January 8, 2024.”
To make the operation
lightning-fast and secret,
Bullrich asked Petri for an Air Force plane and then made him participate in a press conference for a police case,
in an unprecedented event and in line with the decision to increase logistical support. of the Armed Forces to the fight against drug trafficking
.
Thus, Brigadier General Xavier Julián Isaac, chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, and Brigadier Major Fernando Luis Mengo, chief of the General Staff of the Argentine Air Force,
commanded the plane
, Petri said.
The Ecuadorian citizens were taken to the El Palomar Air Brigade and on Friday they were deported to Ecuador in an Air Force Fokker that left from Aeroparque and landed at the Simón Bolívar Air Base in Guayaquil.
Yesterday they were released,
but the Ecuadorian justice system plans to charge them in a case of international significance
.
The Ministers of Security, Patricia Bullrich (d);
of Defense, Luis Petri (i), and of the Interior, Guillermo Francos (2d), observe a screen that shows the deportation operation of those close to the Ecuadorian criminal 'Fito' Macías, during a press conference.