Clan Loza: started one of the biggest drug money laundering trials in history

The trial of the Loza clan, one of the most important pharmaceutical organizations in the country, began this Wednesday virtually. Eleven of its members are accused of money laundering from drug trafficking, more than 800 million pesos that they would be used to acquiring, through leading men, real estate, businesses and cars, among them, the famous Ferrari driven by Diego Maradona in the 90s.

After the first day, it was clear that the trial It will be vast: about 500 witnesses will pass there, who will testify in sets of 25 per hearing. The trial will resume on June 7.

Prosecutor Gabriel Pérez Barberá requested that the number of witnesses be reduced, but the Economic Criminal Court No. 3 rejected the proposal because initially the Financial Information Unit (UIF), the plaintiff in the case, proposed that these testimonies be heard, although it did subsequently abandoned the idea.

The trial will be long because the investigation lasted more than four years to unravel the workings of a sophisticated organization. They were used undercover agents to establish how this group moved, who contacted encrypted systems, like Encorchat.

On the bench – in fact, in a room in Marcos Paz prison – they were sitting eleven members of the clan led by brothers Erwin and Valdemar. José Gonzalo Loza, the other head of the organization, died in 2019. According to research, they accumulated a fortune with transnational drug trafficking and laundered money in Argentina in various fields, such as hotels, garages, businesses and luxury cars, as revealed by the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor in charge of economic crime and money laundering (Procelac).

In September 2019, some 65 movable and immovable property seized from the clan were the subject of the first judgment based on the DNU issued by Mauricio Macri, which established the extinction of the ownership of property resulting from corruption and organized crime.

Besides the three Loza brothers, the accused are Clara Fernández, Erwin’s partner; his nephews Gonzalo, Daniel and Alan Loza; the Peruvian William Weston Millones; Juan Carlos Fernández; Gerardo Cuccione; Javier Silveira López; Estela Gallo; Américo Santi and Natalia Grosso.

The suspicion, based on a cause that started in Malaga, Spain, is that the Loza clan transferred large shipments of cocaine from different parts of Latin America to Europe. This organization, as it results from the judgment for committal, has also acted in other countries, such as Italy, Ireland, England, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. They had “links with other criminal cells” which operated in Spain and Argentina.

The gang carried out the different stages of the narcocriminal activity, according to the investigation carried out by Procelac and the Narcocriminality prosecutor’s office (Procunar). Among others, financing drug trafficking operations, acquiring cocaine in Argentina and other South American countries, transporting it to Spain by boat and distributing shipments in Europe. Then, “the money produced was transported to Argentina, in order, on the one hand, to put it into circulation on the legal market, thus hiding its true origin, or to acquire new shipments” of drugs.

The role of the murdered financier

For the researchers, being able to untangle the belt washing operation was key the statement of the financier Diego Xavier Guastini, who was executed three times by killers in quilmes the morning of October 28, 2019.

The role of Guastini, who testified before being assassinated – is the video of his testimony in the Loza clan case – It was the result of controversies at the start of the trial. Lawyer Héctor Gozzi, the defender of Erwin Loza, insisted that Guastini’s testimony should be rejected as evidence, which – in the opinion of the lawyer – “We do not know” if he was accused in this case and the figure of the repentant was accepted. Other advocates have joined Gozzi’s proposal.

“Guastini has testified in dozens of court files, but we don’t know in what capacity, whether or not he was part of the organization,” Gozzi said. Prosecutor Barberá’s response focused on the fact that this proposal has already been rejected by the court, something that this Wednesday the body chaired by Judge Luis Imas ratified again. In conclusion: the testimony of the murdered financier will be taken into account in the trial.

Three decades of activity in Europe

One of the expeditions moved by the Loza clan was detected in Lugones, Asturias, on October 2, 2017. The 2,500 kilos of cocaine are said to have been transferred to Spain on a sailboat commanded by AA, an Argentinian lieutenant, 38, according to Procunar’s opinion. This navy member was promoted to corvette in 2010, according to the Official Journal, and reportedly resides in Paraná, Entre Ríos. But he is not one of eleven accused of drug-related money laundering.

But the arrival of the clan in Spain was part of the end of a story that begins 30 years earlier. The brotherhood led by the Lozas was formed when the company of Cocaine smuggling was just beginning to bear fruit despite the risks it represented this illegal activity. In the demand for elevation to judgment, it seems 1986 and 1990 “José Gonzalo Loza and his brother Valdemar were linked to the kidnapping of 515 grams of cocaine.”

Over time, the Loza they began to gain ground and weight in this illicit trade. On March 3, 1993, the brothers were kidnapped 20 kilograms of cocaine. According to the requirement to appear in court, “it does not appear that they have been convicted”. “It was believed at the time that the Lozas were Bolivians”, points to the document; in fact, they were from Salta.

In another 1995 case (No. 98/95 Federal Oral Criminal Court No. 3) it was stated that “Loza was a well-known drug dealer who operated in various parts of the federal capital”.

On May 29, 1998, an anonymous complaint was filed with the court stating that the Lozas, who they took care of the distribution of drugs on the central market, they were preparing a shipment of cocaine to Europe. The 989/98 case was launched, which determined that “the people who engaged in the illegal activities were Valdemar and Gonzalo Loza, as well as Rafael and Delfín Castedo”.

The name of José Loza is mentioned in another case (file 9715 of the Federal Court of La Plata) which led to the arrest of this man born in Salta on June 13, 2000. But justice lost sight of him.

The Lozas also appear to be linked to another drug clan in the north of the country, led by Ernesto Motok, alias “Manco”, convicted of having transported 753 kilos of cocaine seized in the city of Buenos Aires from José C. Paz, in 2005.

As proven in research, the drug was hidden in a shipment of bananas that entered the country from Bolivia and that he was to be received by Ernesto’s brother, Alejandrino Motok.

On disk José Loza seems linked, in 2011, to another group of narcocriminals led by Carlos Oroño, that he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2014. Investigation by the federal police indicates that Oroño was “closely related” to “a Jujuy family with the surname Loza-Caravajal”.

In another operation, called “White lions”, of December 29, 2013, when 481 kilos of cocaine hidden in statues abducted from Colombian group in La Reja, Moreno felines, Erwin Loza, José’s brother, and one of the leaders of the wholesale cocaine brotherhood, was implicated as an alleged supplier.

After all the journey of the Loza clan for 30 years, On August 1, 2017, the DEA informed Argentine investigators of the identity of members of the Loza clan, that “they were involved in drug trafficking and money laundering”. At that point, they were again on the radar of Argentine investigators.