Police officers who kidnap small drug sellers, charge them a ransom to release them or not file a case against them, and do so openly with such impunity that they even use an official office as a place of captivity.
The Federal Justice of Tucumán has been dealing with this for years.
The last case was that of
a young marijuana flower grower and seller kidnapped on February 23
. Three Tucumán police officers went to look for him at his house in a private neighborhood: first they made him go out onto the street with the deception that they were buyers and then they took him to the Zone III Headquarters, located south of the city of Tucumán. . They never recorded his entry into the sectional.
According to the reconstruction made by federal prosecutor Agustín Chit, there they stripped him naked and threatened to file a case against him. They left him in the care of a woman whom they identified as his boss. They did not release him until his mother went to pay them
240 thousand pesos in ransom
, only part of the 400 thousand that the group had originally requested.
At the headquarters "
they beat him and made him take off his clothes, while one of them filmed the scene with his cell phone. Then the captors returned to the victim's home, where they found his brother, whom they asked for his phone number. cell phone to continue with the negotiations regarding the release of who they held captive
," details the fiscal.gob.ar website of the Attorney General's Office.
The protagonists of this story are the main officer Ángel Sebastián Gómez, corporal Sergio Daniel Díaz and agent Franco Javier Jiménez, plus a fourth man not yet identified.
The main officer Ángel Sebastián Gómez.
The three Tucumán police officers
are imprisoned
and a few days ago the acting federal judge No. 1, José Manuel Díaz Vélez, issued them preventive detention. Two are housed in Gendarmerie facilities and one in his house, since he has hip surgery.
The crime they are accused of is serious: "
extortive kidnapping aggravated by the participation of three or more people, because the ransom was collected and because the three accused are public officials
."
"In that place
they made me undress and they beat me
and the guy in the Atlético (Tucumán) shirt, light blue in color, who was a very tall brunette, who was the one who hit me, took photographs of me with his cell phone," the victim declared.
The man also stated: "One of them, the one in the black sweater, was consuming cocaine. The other three stayed in the room and they took me outside with this guy in the black sweater, who told me that he had not slept since the day before." ,
that they were dedicated to extorting people and stealing.
This was the one who contacted me to coordinate the sale."
Background
The episode of the "flower" seller is the last, but not the only case of kidnapping police in Tucumán. Quite the contrary, it responds to the same modus operandi detected since at least 2021.
At that time, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the victim of the kidnapping was
a taxi driver - supposedly involved in micro-trafficking -
who was intercepted and taken away in front of his partner and three-year-old daughter.
Corporal Sergio Daniel Díaz.
The police officers weren't worried about attracting attention: they were in
a gold Ford EcoSport
. In this case, the victim stated that they had threatened to file a case for him for which he could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to the taxi driver, they told him to call his supplier so that he
could pay two kilos of cocaine as a ransom
.
Finally, the police officers - two from Tucumán and one from the Federal Anti-Drug Brigade - were arrested because the taxi driver's neighbors saw him being taken away and called 911.
The most scandalous case, because it was filmed, was that of five police officers who, on February 19, 2022,
broke into the house of a dealer in Famaillá
. 20 thousand pesos were stolen from the house, but the investigation determined that the real plan was to kidnap the owner of the property.
Agent Franco Javier Jiménez.
Three police officers were convicted for this incident, who were identified through the security camera images of the place. Those footages were key in another kidnapping case.
As the news appeared on television, and the video was also broadcast, one of the police officers was recognized by an agricultural producer in the Leales area, about 45 kilometers from the capital.
Video
Kidnapping police in Tucumán.
The man, who was also linked to the possible sale of drugs, had been kidnapped on February 18. Seven men dressed as police officers stormed his house and handcuffed him and an employee.
Then
they took a photo of him with his marijuana plants and put him in their Fiat Palio
. They held him captive in the car for five hours. They went around until the kidnapped person's family raised 200 thousand pesos. But they wanted more, so, feeling unpunished, they claimed the keys to the Palio and took it as part of the loot.
EMJ