An institutional scandal.
Five police officers who were serving in the
Rosario
Radioelectric Command (CRE) were arrested over the weekend: they are accused of
"covering up criminal gangs" and of "planting weapons"
when shootings were committed in December and January in different public places leaving
"threatening" messages
towards the provincial governor, Maximiliano Pullaro and other Santa Fe officials.
"During the last weekend, five police officers were arrested and will be charged with a series of crimes linked to
cover-ups in different shootings
of important targets," the prosecutor, Franco Carbone, confirmed this Monday at a press conference.
The prosecutor is leading the investigation of different shootings recorded in Rosario during the past month;
acts of violence that included "mafia messages" to provincial officials and even the governor of the province himself.
"The five police officers who would be involved belong to the Radioelectric Command of the Rosario Police - confirmed the prosecutor -. Four of them were arrested this Sunday while on duty; and there was a fifth police member who was in Córdoba after requesting medical leave." , specific.
The operations were carried out by the Internal Affairs unit and the Special Operations Troop, while in Córdoba the police of said jurisdiction collaborated, according to the newspaper La Capital.
Governor Maximiliano Pullaro received threatening messages.
Photo Federico López Claro -
The events that are being investigated and in which the police would be involved, were in different acts of vandalism in December and January: in the shooting at the facilities of Banco Macro;
in the Emergency hospital;
at the 19th police station;
and at the door of the headquarters of the Investigative Police (PDI), among other Institutions.
The prosecutor explained that in different procedures the police officers who are targeted will be accused of "cover-up";
for "planting weapons" to benefit criminal gangs who were ultimately "the ones who actually committed the attacks," according to him.
Weapons that incriminate police officers
On January 31, a man traveling in his Toyota Hilux was arrested.
There, the agents involved allegedly seized three firearms: one 9 millimeter caliber, another .40 and the last .380.
In turn, they said they had kidnapped
a paper with a threatening message towards Governor Maximiliano Pullaro
.
The Prosecutor specifically referred to said procedure: "Those weapons should have been seized at that time because they
had already been used in other shootings
, on January 20 and 23," he explained. "And they were in the possession of the police when they arrested to the young driver," Carbone said.
Regarding the situation of the young man detained on that occasion, the official assured that he was "released" when this hypothesis arose and we had the results of the tests on the seized weapons.
Regarding the degree of participation of each one in the maneuver detected and other details of the case, Carbone anticipated that "they will be exposed in a hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon," which will take place at the headquarters of the Justice Center. Rosario Prison.
Likewise, the Undersecretary of Control of the Ministry of Security and Justice of Santa Fe, Lucas Covacich, confirmed that the five detained police officers were "immediately made available."
With information from Télam