It was a planned coup that required more than a week of prior intelligence and had a quick and effective mechanism to get rid of the millionaire loot.
The investigation into the crime of businessman Jorge De Marco (65) in San Isidro revealed new details about the operation of the
“Banda del Millón”
and yielded a surprising clue: the arsenal of weapons stolen from the victim would have been
sold to drug traffickers in San Martin
.
These data emerge from the investigations of those accused of the murder and new raids in the last hours.
In one of them they arrested a fifth suspect, a 17-year-old teenager.
There is also a 14-year-old minor involved, unimpeachable due to his age, according to what judicial sources informed
Clarín
.
Jorge De Marco was monitored during the week before the crime, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday, March 14.
Every day, in the morning and afternoon, gardener Francisco Gaitano along with the 14-year-old teenager passed by the victim's house, located at San José 86, one block from the San Isidro Jockey Club.
Gaitano knew the area because
he was the gardener of a neighboring house
located on Obispo Terrero Street where he went every Friday afternoon and because he lived less than 20 blocks away, in the town of La Cava, in Beccar.
In that field work they were able to confirm that De Marco's house had motion sensors on the ground floor.
That information was fundamental and was the reason why to enter they went directly through the upper floor and, during the robbery, they were careful not to go down to the ground floor.
Furthermore, on the upper floor there were no bars or alarm and the victim, who had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), slept with the window open.
“We liked it because it was a big house and it didn't have bars or cameras,” declared, more words, less words,
Kevin Leites Acuña
(18), one of the arrested thieves who confessed his participation in the hit on De Marco's house before the researchers.
His testimony was key to being able to reconstruct the criminal plan executed by the “Million Gang” and confirm the roles of each of its members.
Kevin Leites (18), arrested for the crime of businessman Jorge De Marco (65) in San Isidro.
Leites said that they went to the house at 4 in the morning and that he rode his bicycle and stayed in the property's park acting as a bell.
He also stated that they were actually going to carry out a robbery in the “escruche” mode, assuming that the victim was not there.
However, investigators do not rule out that this is a lie to improve his procedural situation.
According to Leites, as soon as his companions entered he heard a shot, which he said De Marco fired when they surprised him.
The robbers then managed to subdue him and immobilize him.
They tied his hands and feet to the bed and beat him.
De Marco suffered the
fracture of two ribs
, which together with a handkerchief that was placed in his mouth so that he would not scream, caused him to aspirate and die.
With the evidence gathered so far, investigators believe that the thieves did not know that inside the house they were going to find
an arsenal
.
So far it has been determined that 16 weapons were taken, including rifles.
Kevin Leites (18), arrested for the crime of businessman Jorge De Marco (65) in San Isidro.
It is surprising then how easily they managed to get rid of them.
According to sources in the investigation told
Clarín
, the route of the weapons was like this: from De Marco's house they were taken in trucks to Martín Gaitano, the gardener's brother and one of the fugitives in the case.
Already in La Cava, they gave them to
a 17-year-old teenager identified as B.
and who would be a member of the “Banda del Millón.”
From his house, the loot traveled to Juan Pablo López, alias “Pipi”, in Moreno, who at the same time gave them to Pablo “Pancho” Ávila, so that he could market them, which it is presumed that he did for an
amount of $16 million
.
The buyers?
Justice suspects that they were drug traffickers from Villa 18 in San Martín, the neighborhood historically controlled by drug boss Miguel Ángel “Mameluco” Villalba.
On Friday, investigators raided Ávila's house in José C. Paz but could not find him and he remains a fugitive in the case.
Ávila has also had
an arrest warrant issued by Justice since 2013 for having escaped from the Beccar police station.
In more raids ordered by prosecutors Patricio Ferrari and Carolina Asprella and carried out by the DDI San Isidro, they arrested B., the 17-year-old teenager whose weapons were taken in La Cava.
Seeing that the Police were entering his house, B. tried to escape through the window, but fell into a neighbor's house and was caught there.
He was placed at the disposal of Juvenile Justice and was wanted for a crime that occurred in a confrontation between gangs in La Cava.
The 17-year-old detainee also liked to make publications on social networks linked to the world of crime.
For example, that of a photo on a wall with the phrase: “
In a neighborhood of rich people, without weapons and without grudges, it is only money and not love
”, the same one that the authors of the
“Robbery of the Century” left in the Banco Río by Acassuso
.
The investigators also took a statement from “Pipi” López, the one who allegedly received the weapons from De Marco in Moreno, and said that he did not know that Leites and Martín Gaitano were wanted.
However, he found himself cornered when asked why Leites dyed his hair and shaved his beard at his house.
They also accuse him of having given refuge to fugitives in exchange for money.
Francisco Gaitano, the gardener, refused to testify and also has a record of robbery with weapons.
Martín, his brother, and Ávila are fugitives in the case.
The first person arrested in the case was the driver Rubén López (70), whom Sharon, the girlfriend of one of the band members, went to pick up the band members from De Marco's house and load them. all the loot.
The unusual thing is that the thieves used the victim's cell phone to communicate with the young woman, a clumsiness that the investigators did not forgive.
Gendarmes were sent to the town of La Cava in San Isidro
These days the area of Villa La Cava, where the "Banda del Millón" that assaulted and killed De Marco is from, has a security reinforcement in charge of the Gendarmerie.
The agents have been present for a month and carry out vehicle checks and tours of the internal streets, especially designated by the municipality.
“We are very happy to once again have an active presence of the Gendarmerie in La Cava," said the mayor of San Isidro Ramón Lanús, and added: "It is our priority and we ratify the commitment to take charge and provide concrete responses to each Sanisidrense.
“We are going to continue working together to prevent crime.”