Next Friday the Federal Oral Court No. 2 of La Plata will give its verdict in one of the strangest cases in recent years: the kidnapping of
33 kilos of cocaine
that were floating adrift in the Rio de la Plata in front of Ensenada , an episode that included three castaways fighting for their lives in the middle of a perfect storm and the stellar performance of Ignacio Alfredo Pardo (59), known as
"Naco" Goldfinger, former saxophonist of the Fabulosos Cadillacs
.
The drugs were going to be taken by speedboat to a merchant ship anchored in front of Punta Lara, in the roadstead of the port of La Plata.
There, unfaithful crew members would hoist her up to begin the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to
Europe
.
The method is called
drop-on
, it is widely used by drug gangs in South America and has already caused several international alerts.
In the case of "Naco", a great storm ended with everyone in the water, cocaine (93% pure) and drug traffickers.
The arrest of the former Cadillac occurred on October 15, 2021 and since then he has been in prison like the other surviving castaway: Gastón Minin (44).
The third man who was in the fast boat, Carlos Cammarota (46), drowned.
As the months passed, the file and its history fell into oblivion.
But the discovery of more than 300 kilos of cocaine in 11 packages, in the same area of the Rio de la Plata, last Monday, January 22, once again put the spotlight on the lack of control that exists in the Port of La Plata and more precisely in the roadstead
In that place, dozens of large ships wait to load mainly fuel.
The case of "Naco" Goldfinger was strange and what happened this week too.
Two of the 11 packages with cocaine found by chance in the Río de la Plata.
To begin with,
Monday's discovery was made by chance
(it did not stem from any criminal intelligence task, as stated).
No traces of any speedboat or humans were found near the drugs.
The cocaine was alone floating in the river, packaged with handles, ready for someone to lift it onto a ship with something as simple as a hook and rope.
The sequence that
Clarín
was able to reconstruct had four stages:
-At 10:45 on Monday the 22nd, the tanker "Gustavo U" notified the Prefecture about
two large orange packages
that were floating in West Zone 2 of the La Plata roadstead.
The coast guard "Lago Colhue" went there and took them out of the water: the first package had
25 loaves with a total weight of 29,545 grams
, the second also had
25 loaves and a similar weight, 28,895 grams
.
The tanker "Gustavo U" notified the Prefecture about two large orange packages in the water.
–The discovery gave rise to a search by air with support from the water and it was thus that at 3:30 p.m. on the same Monday the Bahía Blanca coast guard found
seven other packages
, with the same number of loaves each, all of a similar weight.
–The search continued and at 7:30 p.m. a tenth package
of identical dimensions
was found .
Until then the floating cargo was
289,635 grams
, an amount that could be worth around
15 million dollars placed in Europe
.
But things continued the next day:
The shipment of almost 300 kilos is valued at 15 million dollars placed in Europe.
–In the morning, a Buenos Aires police sergeant who was passing along the Río de la Plata waterfront in Punta Lara found an abandoned bag (or package) that had been dragged to the shore.
He had
more than 20 kilos of cocaine
.
As it is estimated that it was part of the same shipment, the investigation was also in charge of the federal judge of La Plata Ernesto Kreplak.
Drop on/drop off
The modality is called
drop on/drop off
and consists of something as simple as using speedboats loaded with cocaine and with them reaching the ships that make ocean crossings.
Once the encounter is completed, the drugs are hoisted with ropes to the ship, where they are hidden.
Once at the destination, and before the ship reaches port, the same work is carried out but in reverse.
That was the main hypothesis on which Argentine Customs and the Narcocriminal Prosecutor's Office (Procunar) worked to try to investigate the plot behind the
900 kilos of cocaine
that the Australian Police seized on May 25, 2023 and that it is suspected could have been been loaded in Argentina.
The theory was provided by Homeland Security, the United States' smuggling expert agency.
The cocaine was in a ballast tank full of water on the ship "ST Pinot."
The ship, after undergoing repairs in the port of Montevideo, remained in Argentina between April 9 and 22.
First she anchored in the Port of San Lorenzo (Santa Fe) where she loaded 40,730 kilos of soy flour and then – after refueling – she waited a few days in the La Plata roadstead.
At some point, investigators believe, the drugs were loaded onto the ship.
Customs in principle rules out that it was when the ship was inside the Port of San Lorenzo.
They maintain that they reviewed the security cameras and nothing seems to indicate that the drugs were planted then.
Given this, two hypotheses remain.
One: that the cocaine was already in the "ST Pinot" when it arrived in Argentina from Montevideo.
Two: that a drop on
has been completed in the La Plata roadstead
.
There is plenty of precedent to support this last theory and what happened last Monday the 22nd gives it even more support.
As the photos - provided to Customs investigators by US Homeland Security - showed in 2023, the packages with the 900 kilos of cocaine were
packed with ropes
.
This would be precisely to first hoist the load (drop on) and then take it down at the destination (drop off).
This is how the shipment that ended with the shipwreck of Naco Goldfinger had been planned in 2021.
But there were more cases.
Ignacio Pardo Paso, better known as "Naco" Goldfinger, former saxophonist of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs.
Photo Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
Another occurred in May 2022.
At that time, Australian authorities
found the body of a Brazilian diver
and later discovered a shipment of cocaine attached to the bottom of a grain ship coming from Argentina.
It is believed that the diver, identified as Borges Martins, died during the maneuvers to rescue the cocaine.
The Australian Police seized just over 50 kilos but, in reality, they are talking about 300.
One more: in June 2022, the Argentine Naval Prefecture seized
six bags with more than 170 kilos of cocaine
floating off the coast of the Coronel Rosales district, in the south of Buenos Aires.
It happened when the authorities were investigating the mysterious appearance of a semi-rigid boat without crew and a fisherman reported finding the drugs.
Each bag had about 28 loaves of bread and they were found floating in the estuary, between the Puerto Belgrano naval base and the Villa del Mar resort.
Drifting drug.
On June 30, 170 kilos appeared floating in bags
Something definitely smells bad and more than one source is already talking about "lack of control" in the La Plata roadstead.
A European Union report published in 2022 on the "Maritime Threat Assessment of Illicit Flows across the Atlantic" concluded: "Latin American and Caribbean countries show diverse capabilities against maritime threats, but both regions
have few resources to address illicit trafficking
. In South America, countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia show theoretically similar capabilities in law enforcement and naval and air surveillance capabilities. However, these capabilities are not sufficient to monitor movements in territorial waters, especially in Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina".
MG