The map of
Rosario's drug organizations
is imperfect.
It mutates, it expands.
It appears diversified and inorganic.
Not only new players were added to the business.
The picture is
much more complex
.
Just one example to show this situation:
“Los Monos”
, the gang that began with the drug business in the 90s, which appeared until a few years ago as a monolithic block, now operates divided, as if it were criminal groups
. independent
.
It is clear to the investigators that Máximo “Viejo” Cantero, his son Ariel “Guille” Cantero and one of his grandsons, Uriel “Lucho” Cantero, have been operating independently for some time.
The same happens with other children of "Viejo", such as Ariel "Chanchón" Cantero or Alexis "Tartita" Cantero Schneider.
The clan appears disbanded.
Máximo "Old" Cantero, one of the historical leaders of the Los Monos gang.
When "Lucho", leader of a new generation of the Canteros, was charged, prosecutor Gastón Ávila stated that
he had generated a new gang
, "not only because of the bearing of his last name and because of the inheritance he has for being the son of 'Pájaro', but also for the very acts that it has been carrying out”.
He concluded that in the streets he appears "as someone of hierarchy."
But the clan also has
cells that work in an inorganic way
.
It even appears in the investigation for
the heinous crime of Lorenzo “Jimi” Altamirano
, a street artist kidnapped from the street and murdered in front of the Newell's stadium on February 1, a crude internal dispute.
The fact was used to send a message between these two internal factions.
What is happening with Los Monos is just a demonstration of a fragmented business.
Not only are there multiple gangs that operate, with disparate power, in the city's neighborhoods.
Second, third and even fourth lines that report to the currently detained drug lords also seek
to generate their own space
.
The actions of these organizations, their bloody ways and their criminal operations, came back into focus after the attack on the in-laws' supermarket and the threats against Lionel Messi.
A shooting and an intimidating poster linked the action with these groups, although the investigators do not rule out that the attack had other motivations, far removed from the drug issue.
Beyond this specific episode, with an international impact, the insecurity in Rosario is largely explained by
the wild movement of these groups
.
Diversity added complications to a panorama that began to emerge brutally with dozens of homicides in 2013. It is no longer just the war between one clan managing the business and another disputing that market.
There are too many actors participating in a millionaire and bloody game.
"The illicit markets are absolutely out of control," described the prosecutor Luis Schiappa Pietra, for years one of those responsible for investigating the main local gangs.
One of the most powerful is headed by
Esteban Lindor Alvarado
, sentenced in June last year to life imprisonment for leading an illegal association dedicated to
carrying out attacks, money laundering and committing homicides
.
Days after that ruling, the Federal Justice sentenced him to 15 years in prison for trafficking 500 kilos of marijuana.
A former member of his group, who dared to testify as repentant and was murdered, defined him as
"the biggest serial killer in Argentina
. "
In these two structures, which disputed territory and business with bullets and death for years, there is
a well-oiled system of co-optation and police corruption
.
Different investigations revealed the impudent actions of commissioners and agents, capable of even intervening in formal investigations to benefit some to the detriment of others.
Bullet marks from the attack on the Community Police headquarters in February.
Shootings are commonplace in the city.
Photo Juan Jose Garcia
The mention of groups and clans that dispute the drug business includes, among others, René "Brujo" Ungaro, the Funes and Caminos families.
Also, Olga “Tata” Medina, Nelson “Pandu” Aguirre, Brian “Gordo” González, Gustavo “Toro” Martinotti, all convicted of different crimes, or gangs like “Los Cavernícolas” and “Los Cuatreros”.
A report by journalist, writer and provincial representative Carlos Del Frade indicates that
there are at least 34 drug gangs in Gran Rosario
.
The division of the city, with limits that overlap and are disputed daily, includes the neighborhoods most affected by insecurity.
Bella Vista, Villa Banana, Godoy, Tablada, Municipal, Empalme Graneros, Triángulo or Vía Honda are the scene of a war that has been going on for at least ten years.
In a decade, 2,282 homicides occurred, with rates that reached five times the national average.
Since 2013, a crime has been recorded every 39 hours.
Last year a new record was broken: 288 murders.
It is the most brutal, most relevant statistic, but not the only one.
Insecurity is a corrosive stain that spreads with attacks, threats, extortion and violent disputes of all kinds, like the one that shook the city this week with the shooting against a supermarket and a threat that bore the last name
of Messi
.
72.1% of homicides are related to criminal economies and criminal organizations.
There, the drug business weighs decisively.
The empowered gangs are not, however, the only problem that would explain the insecurity that has engulfed the city for some time.
Police corruption, the scarcity of resources in the Justice, the widespread flow of weapons on the black market, the business sectors willing to participate in the laundering of dark money and the prisoners managing their affairs from jail with impudent freedom contribute to a
reality complex and macabre
.
Each more difficult to transit.
Rosary beads. Correspondent
look also
Drug violence in Rosario: they raid the cell of the leader of "Los Monos" and suspect a prison guard
Threat to Messi: how the neighbors live in the hottest neighborhoods of Rosario due to drug trafficking
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