Federico "Morenita" Marín (33)
formally acknowledged before the Court that he was one of the most important marijuana smugglers on the coast.
He fell, but he did not fall alone: he decided to declare that he
was sorry
to improve his legal situation and sent a federal judge, two of his secretaries, gendarmes, police officers, lawyers, two mayors and even other drug traffickers to the front.
"Morenita" achieved its goal.
The Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber
lowered his sentence from 12 to 6
and, last December, he obtained his house arrest.
With an electronic anklet, he was relocated by the Witness Protection Program of the National Ministry of Justice.
They moved him to a point in the Province of Buenos Aires
together with his wife and his five children.
But
"Morenita" disappeared last Tuesday
and since then has been captured nationally and internationally.
Interpol is looking for him.
The point is that
it is not known if she escaped or was the victim of revenge.
Be that as it may, today he is considered a "fugitive".
While everyone is looking for him, the crossfire around his figure and that of the former federal judge of Corrientes, Carlos Soto Dávila and his secretaries, Federico Grau and Pablo Molina, heated up.
The three are currently in trial
accused of collecting bribes.
"Morenita" was a star witness against them
, even repeating everything he had said in the Investigation stage during the oral trial.
His disappearance put the spotlight back on one of the largest drug trafficking cases ever investigated.
And add new chapters.
The first to move their chips was Mariana Barbitta, Soto Dávila's defense attorney.
At the end of this week, she filed a brief with the Oral Criminal Court of Corrientes - which is carrying out the trial - asking it to confirm whether Marín was a fugitive and requesting
custody for his client.
In the defense proposal, former judge Carlos Sota Dávila not only did not collect bribes from Marín but was
his main persecutor.
Along these lines, Barbitta requested: "given the concern generated by this defense that a person linked to drug trafficking is on the run who would have declared with a confidential identity in this case, and whose arrest warrant and subsequent detention was carried out by our defendant, is that we request
extreme security measures
either at the home of our defendant and/or at the scheduled hearings".
They haven't answered him yet, but things aren't that simple, and on the prosecution side they also throw heavy ammunition.
To begin with, the accusation maintains that the judge only went against the drug traffickers to be able to later
charge them for benefits through his secretaries
and some lawyers.
repentant in danger
On paper, no one should have known that Federico "Morenita" Marín was repentant, that's the law.
That is why he was not identified by name and surname in his testimony in the
Sapucay case,
as the operation on systematic marijuana trafficking through the city of Itatí in Corrientes was baptized.
However, during the trial against Soto Dávila and his secretaries, Aníbal Ibarra, Grau's defender, revealed Marín's condition.
This ended up pushing his house arrest (since he was in danger in jail) and led to a complaint against Ibarra himself, presented by the lawyers of "Morenita", the official defenders Enzo Di Tella and Javier Carnevalli.
The complaint against Ibarra for violation of secrets had a request for investigation on January 13.
The accusation was left in the hands of the federal prosecutor of Chaco Patricio Sabadini, since all the prosecutors of Corrientes had
previously been challenged by Ibarra.
Prosecutors maintain that if someone is at risk of life it is Marín, not Soto Dávila.
In the midst of these crossed accusations, Aníbal Ibarra maintains his position.
"To know that the repentant is "Morenita" it is enough to read the presentations of the prosecutors and some resolutions of the judge. No intelligence is even required. Let them make the complaints they want but explain why since 2019 the prosecutors have militarized house
arrest of a drug lord
who has sentences of 12 and 8 years and who lived on the run for half of his life," he shot when asked by
Clarin.
Where is Marin
In the middle of the XL holiday, at the beginning of this week, the electronic anklet that Marin was wearing gave the first alarm.
On Monday, the Electronic Surveillance Division notified the Federal Oral Court No. 3 of the Capital (which controls the execution of Marín's sentence) that the drug trafficker
had moved away from his house.
Immediately afterwards, the TOF asked the Victim and Witness Protection Program to check the situation.
From the program they called Marín, who answered the phone and told them that he had gone to a hospital to be treated for hemorrhoids.
Since "Morenita" notified the Program when she returned to her house that same day, things didn't get any worse.
On Tuesday, Marín's anklet revealed again that he had left home.
This time "Morenita" did not answer the phone
.
When he asked his wife where he had gone, he told them back to the hospital.
However, she still couldn't check if this happened.
It was confirmed that she had been suffering from bleeding hemorrhoids for a long time.
Did Marín escape or is he going to appear in a ditch?
That is the question that worries everyone, prosecutors, judges and PROCUNAR investigators who promoted the investigation into marijuana trafficking in Itatí.
According to the investigation, led by Diego Iglesias, the Marín gang sent
shipments of marijuana to Tucumán, Córdoba, Mendoza, Santa Fe, Chaco, Buenos Aires and Villa 21
of the City of Buenos Aires.
"Morenita" was recently arrested in October 2018 when a Gendarmerie patrol surrounded his house, in Itatí.
The man was heavily armed and
turned himself in after lengthy negotiations
.
In the Sapucay case, the drug lord from Corrientes signed an abbreviated trial for 12 years in prison after accepting the accusation of being a member of an illegal association, and co-perpetrator in the drug trade aggravated by using minors under 18 years of age and by the participation of public workers.
SC
look also
A repentant narco who had testified against politicians and police disappeared