Guillermo Coppola and the crime of Poli Armentano: 'I was walking with exuberant mines. But from there to trafficking, to kill the friend ... '

Virginia Messi

05/19/2021 6:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• Police

Updated 05/19/2021 8:09 AM

The 90's had a bittersweet taste for Guillermo Coppola (72).

Perhaps that is why, in the interview with

Clarín

, he grumbled a little when asked to go back to those times, to remember, to tell, to give his opinion.

As a representative of Diego Armando Maradona, "Guillote" - a nickname that really paints him in full - lived riding on the crest of the wave, with a smile stamped on his face and with his face stamped in the most widely read magazines.

But, on the other hand, the '90s were also hard times: in 1994 the investigating judge Francisco Trovato (who would later end up in prison for collecting bribes) charged him with the crime of his friend, Leopoldo "Poli" Armentano, which occurred in the early morning of 20 April of that year.

Coppola and Armentano, inseparable friends.

And shortly after, in October 1996, the then federal judge of Dolores, Hernán Bernasconi, arrested him on the accusation of being a drug trafficker.

Coppola spent 97 days in prison until it was proven that

the cocaine found in a vase on his Avenida Libertador apartment had been planted

in a seldom seen judicial setup.

"Those were two grains. Two very hard episodes in my life. Imagine that they accused me of ordering the kill of Poli, who was my friend," says Coppola (72), sitting in a cafe near his house, who has him as a habit. and where he is pampered extra after he had COVID-19.

"Look, in the next life I want to be my friend," Coppola says to explain how important ties with his intimates are to him.

Armentano - owner of Trumps and El Cielo clubs - had approached him seeking to get on the balloon of his social success.

And he had succeeded.

"Poli was a bastard, he had his things, but I loved him," Guillermo summarizes at the beginning of the interview.

-When did you meet Poli?

-The truth is that if you ask me that suddenly, I don't remember exactly.

Poli wanted to meet me.

I went out a lot when I returned to Buenos Aires.

Remember that I lived abroad and coming here was my vacation.

Did you meet Trumps?

Trumps how was the living room of your house.

Bulnes and Libertador, a small bowling alley, comfortable tables and friendly people: Alfio Basile, Carlos Babington, Gerardo Sofovich.

It was the drink after dinner ... they danced.

There I met Poli.

He was one of the owners ... but I didn't know.

I was going but didn't know whose Trumps it was.

-But Armentano was clear who you were ...

-He saw my display.

It was a time when Daniel Scioli, Carlitos Menem Junior, many footballers, the Callejón sisters used to hang out with me.

My surroundings were known.

Band of known people.

Poli saw that I had drive, empathy.

People all with me.

And he doesn't.

He was the owner of Trumps, but he was not known, they did not know him.

Then he started to get closer, and we became acquainted.

I used to organize soccer games on Sunday nights at the Club de Amigos.

He asked me to go and began to go.

I even organized a bowling championship.

This is how we start and then develop an important bond of friendship.

Guillermo Coppola, with the mother of "Poli" Armentano at the funeral of the "King of the Night".

Clarín Archive.

-When Armentano was killed, you were already good friends, weren't you?

-Yes, yes yes, I had already advanced, we had already traveled, the bond had already grown.

Poli was killed in '94.

I already had six or seven years of friendship.

When he opened El Cielo I helped him, I lent him money.

-It is that debt that after his death you forgiven ...

-No, I didn't forgive it, I couldn't collect it.

Poli was a hard working guy and very detailed.

Everything he earned he reinvested in the bowling alley.

He was bringing Catherine Deneuve.

I would say to him: "But how are you going to pay for this?"

And he answered me: "I bring it for you, because it is a pending subject."

-I do not understand...

-I had met Catherine on a trip with Diego, at a party in a Monte Carlo bowling alley.

And it was there ... kiss ... Do you understand?

And Prince Albert took it to me ... I was left with the desire.

That story got out.

So Poli said he was going to bring her for that, and he brought her.

And for there he paid 50 lucas!

-Why was Armentano always related to drugs?

-He was crazy at work, a laburante.

Drug?

No. Faso?

Yes. I tell you what I know.

Poli was total anti-drug in the bowling alley, he was to hit, to kick people out if he saw something strange of that level.

Leopoldo "Poli" Armentano was assassinated at the age of 36.

-In the case opened for his homicide, many described him as "horny", as "bastard."

-Very bastard.

He was not wanted.

We went to play ball and there was always trouble.

We were friends, I loved him.

But there were not many of us who wanted him: his childhood companions and me.

People didn't understand how we were friends if I was the antithesis.

He fought, he argued.

I do not.

But I wanted it.

I tell you a story from El Cielo.

Poli hooked a kid with a falopa in the bathroom.

He hit him and he hit him.

The kid told him "son of a bitch I'm going to kill you."

"Do you know what this costs me?" Poli yelled at him and hit him ... there was no way to stop him.

And the kid, destroyed and from the floor told him "I'm going to kill you."

I had that.

Jorge Rial was once thrown out badly too, a partner (not Poli) hit him.

-He was the King of the Night.

-He makes Heaven and eats the figure, the magazines.

He somehow manages to tarnish La City (the disco New York City).

On Fridays in The City there was nothing to give them and suddenly they became Fridays in El Cielo.

He achieved his goal: he became the "King of the Night".

Demaría street 4719, where "Poli" Armentano lived.

They shot him that way that he walked from the ACA parking lot.

Photo Andrés D'Elía.

-What do you think happened?

Because they killed him?

-After Poli dies, the boys name me a certain Leanis.

Apparently this Leanis invites Poli to Ibiza, but he's going to Ibiza with us.

Leanis goes first to England and is imprisoned there for drugs.

-We are talking about Gustavo Leanis, who had given Armentano money to open the Amapola restaurant ...

-Yes, Leanis had given him money and later, when he was imprisoned in Europe, he began to claim it.

He claimed him by letter and Poli carried him.

This is told to me by the boys who worked with him.

Leanis would call him long distance from jail and Poli would say "How do I know you are Leanis?"

The guy was in prison in London.

-The claims of Leanis even appear in the case for the crime of Poli.

-They tell me this when Poli is dead: Leanis sends him a guy, a friend, with a letter and Poli tells him "how do I know that Leanis wrote the letter. Are you crazy that I'm going to give you money? When Leanis comes out I I'm going to give him the money. "

The other called him: "son of a bitch, I'm in jail."

Until he sent the jermu to claim the money and Poli shot the jermu.

There it seems that the guy exploded in anger.

I say what they told me: this man is imprisoned on a trip that he had set up with Poli.

When they catch him, he thinks that Poli gave him up, do you understand?

In addition to that, he did not return the money and shot the woman when she went to see him.

I was detained, it's very screwed up, it's ugly.

And on top of that they cover you and want to lift your jermu ...

Coppola and "Poli" Armentano, along with Ramón Hernández, in Trumps.

Achivo Clarín.

- What do you attribute the case to go unpunished, to the performance of Judge Francisco Trovato?

-Despite having experienced two tough situations, one with Trovato because he charged me with the crime of a friend, ugly, and another with that criminal Bernasconi, I still believe in Justice and in the judges.

You tell me why they did it.

One had the appetites of a star civil servant (Bernasconi) and the other a delirium for being known: Trovato, a salami. 

Do you know why I feel that he imputed it to me?

Trovato used me to be in magazines.

It was not the same if he did it with Leanis. Who was Leanis?

And as for what happened to the vase: that was a reality show.

But there I was not who they ultimately wanted.

Bernasconi wanted to go higher, he wanted to reach Diego Maradona, Tinelli, Luis Miguel.

But since mine exploded, he couldn't.

-Your profile was always high, besides.

-I used to feed, it's true.

He walked with lush, blond mines.

But from there to trafficking, to kill the friend ... life ended up accommodating everything.

I never trafficked.

Take?

Yes, I was wrong.

But I say it, I do not face it.

Here there is a lot of browsing

At one point he was going to Ibiza and what was he going to do in Ibiza?

pray?

I was going to have fun.

Coppola and "Poli" Armentano, along with Zulemita Menem.

-What do you remember from the night Poli was shot?

-We went to dinner at the Mirasol.

There was Ramón Hernández (private secretary of President Carlos Menem), there was the head of the president's custody.

A normal dinner.

A waiter said we were fighting.

Ceeeeerooooooo, someone clapped at him to say that.

-In the case the doorman of the Poli building said that you went and took things.

-The doorman of Poooooliiii, another stupid one!

For me there was someone who distributed twine.

The waiter says there was a fight.

If we go to Trumps from there!

Poli goes to the office, I stay downstairs with a friend of his who later took me home.

The national team played in Salta, they opened a stadium, Diego played.

That's why I invited Poli to join me.

We got to Trumps, Poli went to the office as usual, there he smoked a little bit.

Poli was fuming all day, he was high all the time.

But no falopa.

The flight to Salta left very early.

I stayed down.

At one point I asked about Poli and they told me he had left.

I stayed a while longer, I came home and within hours they told me what had happened and I ran to the Fernandez Hospital.

I could not believe.

Police expertise at the crime scene.

Clarín Archive.

-Do you discard the robbery motive?

- (… ..)

- Poli had enemies?

-I do not know.

I found out about Leanis after her death.

Do you understand?

-One theory was oriented to his multiple relationships with married women ...

-Poli pointed everywhere.

The affair with Zulemita Menem always seemed like a fantasy to me, yes.

But once he even shot my girlfriend.

I called him, he denied me, he told me that she was wrong.

I knew him: He shot him for sure!

It had no limits.

He also did the same to the partner's wife.

He certainly had open foreheads ... but to get killed like this?

La Recova, at Posadas 1032, today.

"Poli" Armentano dined there the night before his assassination, in 1994. Photo: Andrés D'Elia.

-You were singled out for the debt that Poli had, for the money you had lent him ...

-Believe me: zero debt.

Poli would have paid me in some way, he would have given me part of something and I would have continued having fun ... money was not the goal.

For the people, I was the owner of El Cielo.

He had the best box, Franco Macri's was next door.

It was my place.

He would get angry because sometimes I would put him in too long, I would finish late.

And he was going to sleep.

I made it long and that gave me pleasure.

-Did you think you were going to go to prison in the Armentano case?

-Noooooo.

Well, stop, because of the vase I didn't think I was going to jail either and I spent 97 days.

I knew they were going to raid me, that they were preparing something, there was a commissioner who wanted to put me in jail.

- Is it true that you had sewn the pockets of the jacket so that they did not put anything in you?

-Yeah, that was used.

Also, I don't know if you remember, but the sacks already came with the pockets a little sewn up and I just wouldn't take them off.

Recovered from COVID, but even with some ambulatory oxygen assistance, Guillermo Coppola looks back and sees it as: "

I had fun, I lived life well, I did not screw anyone, never the wrong woman, I am surrounded by friends

. I won Twine, I spent it, I broke it, I enjoyed it, yes. I recovered what I lost. I am a beloved guy, people love me ", Coppola concludes with those same big smile, well" Guillote ", which was the hit of the magazines of the '90s and did not lose the charm.

GL - EMJ