Road blocks as a form of claim are not new; that the police often steal money and goods in raids is not new; That the social climate is increasingly explosive is nothing new.
What really surprised everyone this Monday morning (those who watched television and those who suffered it live) was that all these factors converged on a bridge over the Riccheri Highway in La Matanza, at the height of the Central Market.
There, just over twenty people, residents of Villa Madero, cut off both hands and set tires on fire. The cut started at 9.30, got up at 14 p.m. and generated such a traffic madness that the cars started in the opposite direction to escape the trap.
With a banner that read "Thieving Policemen" the improvised piqueteros denounced that a group of uniformed men stole cash during a raid carried out on Monday of last week.
In the midst of the traffic chaos and the anger of motorists, there were many rumors that those who blocked the highway were narcos from whom the Police had stolen drugs, which is not surprising either... because it has already happened.
However, the story of this morning's cut is different and, as Clarín was able to check, it has as its protagonist a man from the Bolivian community who began to be investigated in the City of Buenos Aires for carrying and possible sale of weapons.
Apparently the gentleman offers his services as a "seer" in horse races with the pseudonym "Loquillo Chaman". He does so through his daughter's Facebook and, according to the original complaint, illegally displays and sells weapons through Market Place in that way.
The WhatsApp group in which "The Shaman" offered the gun for sale.
It was the house of "Loquillo Chaman" that was raided on May 8 in Villa Madero. And it was then that, according to the raider himself, the police stole $ 2,800.
A peculiar story
"Loquillo Chaman and others s/ delito infraction al article 189 bis 2" is the cover of the case in charge of Rodrigo Pagano Mata, head of the Prosecutor's Office of First Instance in Criminal, Contraventional and Misdemeanor No. 24 of the Western Fiscal Unit of the City of Buenos Aires. This is a misdemeanor. According to the Penal Code: "The simple possession of firearms for civilian use, without due legal authorization, will be punished with imprisonment of 6 (six) months to 2 (two) years and a fine of one thousand pesos ($ 1,000) to ten thousand pesos ($ 10,000)
It is not very clear whether this investigation was initiated by an anonymous complaint or by cyberpatrol tasks. The truth is that Pagano Mata gave the investigation to Complex Crimes of the City Police and, following the clues of Facebook, they arrived at Villa Madero as the place of residence of the main investigated.
As a prosecutor of the City of Buenos Aires cannot act in the province because it is not his jurisdiction, he asked the Justice of La Matanza, by exhortation, to carry out the raids.
The orders were signed by the judge of Guarantees No. 3 of La Matanza and both police of the City and the police station of Villa Madero participated in the raids.
Official information says that in the raid on the house of "Loquillo Chaman" three cell phones were seized to be analyzed. Also that all the money that was in the place was recorded in the minutes.
However, this was not what the family said was raided.
A few hours after the operation, on Tuesday, May 9, "Loquillo Chaman" officially filed the complaint against the police in the assistantship of Crimes of Institutional Gravity of La Matanza, in charge of Andrea Palín and Jorge Yametti.
In the Assistantship – which depends on the Attorney General's Office of La Matanza – the man maintained that they stole $ 2,800 that he was collecting for the operation of his daughter.
Perhaps not accustomed to the times of Justice, or distrusting that someone would investigate what happened, the family and neighbors of Villa Madero decided to go for a more colorful claim than the written complaint.
It didn't go well. The money was not recovered, against the police still "no temperament was adopted", but with the picket they managed to go out in all the national media telling their story and until the Federal Justice intervened, in this case the federal judge No. 2 of Morón Jorge Rodríguez, who took action in the matter for the cutting of the highway.
Now will dollars appear?
MG