Stumbled on a former city councilman accused of leading a drug gang when he was going to celebrate his birthday – 30/04/2019

A former counselor from the city of Salta, Salvador Mazza, who has been on the run since 2016 in a case concerning 267 kilos of cocaine traffic He was arrested in Bolivia while he was preparing to celebrate his birthday with members of his family.

Mauricio Gerónimo (32) was captured Monday in Santa Cruz de la Sierra during a joint operation by the local police and the gendarmerie.

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According to information provided by the Ministry of National Security, the investigators found the fugitive after the intervention of telephone lines in their area. Thus, they confirmed that he was based in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and that he had gone to the town of Laguna Yema, in Formosa, to meet relatives there.

By following this thread, the agents of the gendarmerie discovered what the new identity that the accused used in this area and with the staff of the Special Force Against Drug Trafficking in Bolivia organized an operation allowing him to be captured.

The sources of the case noted that researchers They followed the relatives who were going to meet the former councilor to celebrate his birthday.

Gerónimo had been a fugitive since February 2016, when he had been accused of kidnapping more than 260 kilograms of cocaine in Santiago del Estero, as part of an act referred to as "White February".

The former city councilor is accused of leading a narco group with another mayor, Gabriel Alejandro Maurín, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

For the investigators, cocaine was provided by the Bolivian entrepreneur Wilson Maldonado Balderrama – detained in Bolivia in April 2016 – by air and ground transportation from his country south of Salta.

Once the drug has entered Argentine territory, narcotics they moved it in 4×4 and they conditioned it in trucks that then went to ports, border posts or big cities.

"International cooperation and constant work in criminal investigations have produced this result, another example of political narco, we will follow the narcotics and arrest them where they are hiding," said Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. A press release.