Virginia Messi
07/29/2020 - 16:24
- Clarín.com
- Police
Claudio Scapolan (49) always displayed a high profile as a prosecutor in the San Isidro Judicial Department, where for years he centralized cases for drug law infringement. In fact, on June 8 - in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic - he was photographed going through a junkyard with the mayor Gustavo Posse, in an alleged successful operation against a band that stole wheels.
His mentor was Julio Novo, former attorney general, today about to be tried accused of protecting drug traffickers. And from what has been seen in recent days, Scapolan's fate in court appears to be following in the footsteps of his former boss.
Novo had to resign his position in 2017, harassed by the prosecution of covering up the killings of two Colombian drug paramilitaries in the Shopping Unicenter (July 24, 2008).
Scapolan - who already in 2016 had lost control of the powerful UFI of Complex Crimes, and was now in charge of the Criminal Investigations Executive Area - requested an extraordinary license starting Monday.
According to what Clarín could know , he requested it by email because his cell phones were hijacked last Friday 24th in the context of a complex cause of police corruption that has him as the main protagonist.
Although on Friday a dozen Buenos Aires police officers and up to two judicial secretaries were arrested, Scapolan managed to get rid of ending up in a cell thanks to his privileges . What the prosecutor could not avoid was the call for an investigation that federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado has planned for this Thursday .
For the judge, Scapolan is not one more in the structure that since 2016 the federal prosecutor of San Isidro Fernando Domínguez investigates. Scapolan is accused of being the head of an illicit association dedicated to extortion, the " Mexicaneo " of drugs, drug trafficking, and systematic robbery in armed police operations based on non-existent anonymous complaints.
Prosecutor Claudio Scapolan (right), investigated in San Isidro.
"It is concluded that the prosecutor Claudio Scapolan was not deceived by the preventers but, quite the contrary, it was said fiscal magistrate who instructed the police officials who acted as 'organizers' on the way in which they should constitute the evidence (document through ideologically false acts and / or through the presentation of false testimonies) that would allow him to take advantage of the benefits derived from the commercialization of the cocaine that was not seized (but was illegally seized) of the bribery and extortion, "he says verbatim. the accusation.
In simpler words: the prosecutor is accused of assembling a gang of corrupt police officers and with them manufacturing operations that often were not even in his jurisdiction. In these operations, drugs were " mexicanized " for subsequent sale - such as the half ton of cocaine allegedly stolen in the "White Lions" operation - or people who paid not to be arrested were extorted, such as the daughter of the drug lord Claudio "Piturro" Andrada, who paid $ 30,000 so that they would not take her prisoner .
Scapolan, who has already appointed Félix Linfante as a lawyer, will listen at the time of the investigation (if he does not decide to declare in writing) a varied range of evidence of charges ranging from decisions of the Federal Oral Court No. 5 in San Martín, where Serious irregularities were detected in lawsuits that were annulled and were based on the cause he had instructed, up to hot and spicy telephone crossings and detailed testimonies of "repentant" police and antics.
Rattle noises
Friday the 24th was a key day in the investigation of the federal prosecutor Fernando Domínguez. 400 police were mobilized for 35 raids that took place simultaneously at 5. This Tuesday, 20 more were completed and a few fugitives still have to be arrested .
Part of these raids, carried out by the Federal Police, were carried out in the San Isidro Courts building where the prosecution offices operate. Since then, much of the Judicial Department has been in shock. No one had ever seen anything like this.
As the days went by, the surprise changed to anger. But when it comes to asking, this anger is not for Scapolan's fate, but for that of the two former secretaries of the UFI of Complex Crimes who were arrested that day and are accused of "organizers" of the illicit association, a role not as serious as that of "boss" but more important than that of a simple member.
Few care about Scapolan and perhaps it is because his judicial history was always full of noise . The strongest (until Friday) had been his intervention in the investigation for the strange robbery suffered at his home by Sergio Massa during the 2013 election campaign.
Those were times when the name of Julio Novo - Scapolan's boss - sounded like a potential Minister of Justice in case Massa ever managed to become president. And that's why the robbery and his investigation had everything. That included allegations of irregularities.
The short story: the prosecutor of Pilar Washington Palacios was in charge of a case in which significant irregularities had been reported in the investigation of that robbery, which had been in charge of Scapolan. As a counterattack, Scapolan denounced Palacios for covering up the thief, and the fight included Elisa Carrió siding with Palacios and denouncing Scapolan and Novo for protecting drug traffickers.
Scapolan was started a jury that was stopped by the pandemic and now received a new boost with the cause that exploded on Friday. Another paragraph of the "procedural object" of the Arroyo Salgado file makes the panorama clear: "During at least 2012 and 2013, the main illicit object of the organization consisted in the removal of narcotic drugs from people somehow linked to the narco-criminal environment for their subsequent reintroduction to the clandestine sales circuit through third parties. "
Julio Novo, former attorney general of San Isidro.
The list continues: "Extortion of alleged drug traffickers to pay a monthly fee for protection and / or not to arrest their relatives and close friends; extortion of people without links to drug trafficking under the threat of passing them off as such; arrest of people who they were not drug traffickers for merely statistical purposes to demonstrate an alleged effectiveness in this matter. "
And it completes: "Bribery, instrumental falsehoods, breach of duties and abuse of authority."
EMJ
