Who is who in the narco plot that complicates "Chicho" Serna

In an unpublished case concerning the country, on June 3, a confidential identity officer gave details of money laundering operations in Argentina from Colombian capo José Byron Piedrahita Ceballos, the centerpiece of the Cali poster. Known as "El Patrón de Caucasia", he is a prisoner in the United States, where he is the subject of a trial for Corruption.

The raging testimony that this Friday, the Federal Judge Morón Néstor Barral, has dealt with preventive dententionhe will seize it for 200 million pesos and order the seizure of his badets, which will represent some 3.5 million dollars. In addition, he requested his extradition to Colombia.

The revelations of the witness confirmed the intrigue of the narco wash, which began in 2008 and continued until September 2017, via a structure designed by the real estate developer Mateo Corvo Dolcet. According to justice, the cadre had the "essential collaboration" of former footballer Mauricio "Chicho" Serna and the widow and son of Pablo Escobar, Maria Isabel Santos Caballero and Sebastián Marroquí Santos, respectively.

People arrested for drug trafficking in Argentina would fill 21 Gran Rex

The case had been revealed after the arrest in Colombia of a converted farmer, on December 29, 2017, as a result of a joint investigation by PROCUNAR, the Argentinian office of the DEA, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (dependent on the Treasury Department). of the United States), under the supervision of the Ministry of National Security, by Patricia Bullirch.

In Argentina, the staff of the special anti-drug unit of the National Gendarmerie arrested Mateo Corvo Dolcet, designated as the man who developed the money-laundering architecture for Piedrahita Ceballos . During the proceedings, the alleged street men were also arrested: María De Los Ángeles Verta, Maria Gabriela Sánchez, Marcelo Gustavo Pera, Antonio Pedro Ruíz and Esteban Adrián Delrio.

Jose Byron Piedrahita Ceballos

According to the testimony of the accused collaborator, it is clear that he was a member of the kidney operating the "Cartel Cali" and that he took his first steps into the narco-criminal world at the end of the 80s, when it was about labor-related livestock, met the leaders of this organization: the brothers Rodriguez Orejuela. He became his man of confidence and was responsible for making cocaine in various laboratories in Colombia.

It is allocated to the circulation on the Argentine financial market, for the purpose of granting the appearance in court and through the purchase and sale of participations and real estate and personal, an amount of Not less than US $ 3,081,164 and US $ 1,713,035.15, amount "generated by a series of illicit drug trafficking maneuvers that developed from at least 1990 in the Republic of Colombia and the United States. United States of America ", indicates the prosecutions initiated. he had access PROFILE.

"The Arab" is included in the "Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act" list, prepared by the United States Treasury Department – in which the government of this country includes natural or legal persons that it considers occupy or occupy an important role in international drug trafficking, for having considered a "scheme" of Colombian criminal organizations and for having deduced that he had collaborated with the well-known Colombian criminal group called "Oficina de Envigado" ".

Piedrahita has at the same time recorded direct links with the cartels of Medellín and Sinaloa; and he had been on the run since 1997 under a detention application brought by a federal district court in the western district of the US state of Virginia.

Mateo Corvo Dolcet

He was the man responsible for bleaching engineering. He was the representative and central point of contact at the local level of Piedrahita Ceballos. The judge considers that he coordinated the maneuvers to which his wife, María de los Ángeles Verta, the scribe María Gabriela Sánchez and Antonio Pedro Ruiz participated.

His name is behind "Distry Panama SA", "Insula Urbana SA" (Unification of companies "DUAC SA", "EMBAPRI SA", "Annex Calle Chile SA" and "Proyecto Calle Chile SA"), "Pilar Bicentenario SA" ( Ex "Las Recovas del Pilar SA"), "MCD Inversiones y Representaciones SA", "Tango Suite SA" and "Club Monserrat SA", in which Colombian drug traffickers "injected several sums of money, directly, through real estate contributions or unknown channels today. "

These are ambitious real estate projects and millionaires developed by Corvo Dolcet in the party of Pilar, such as the construction of 400 parking spaces on the edge of the new station "Panamericana" of the train Belgrano Norte, which would also be in charge, He has was approved by the then Minister of the Interior and Transport of the Nation Florencio Randazzo.

Also started construction of an impressive urban development, similar to Puerto Madero, valued at $ 400 million, according to the same contractor in an interview.

The program also included tango shows and gastronomic tastings, led by Ruiz, its joint cause. The Los Angelitos café and the Rojo Tango show take place in one of the rooms of the Faena Hotel.

Mauricio "Chicho" Serna

The former Boca player had a vital stake for Barral. On November 4, 2008, Piedrahita acquired from Gabriel Rojas Jaramillo and Mauricio Alberto Serna Valencia the properties located in the "Torre Paddock" (La Lucila) building and the "Campo San Diego Campo" (El campito) plot of the city of Moreno), respectively.

Prosecutors in the case -Diego Iglesias, Sebastián Bbado and agents of Procelac, now responsible for Mario Villar – consider that the operation was a maneuver called "Cambalache (exchange of goods)" in which would have been involved Carlos Mario. Aguilar, aka "Rogelio", former head of the office of Evigado.

The collaborator badured that Serna was a figurehead of "Rogelio", that Piedrahita met within the same organization. He explained that in "Oficina de Envigado" "all the stories of drug trafficking and drug trafficking were dealt with … he moved in. This is an office that Pablo Escobar created in his day and who was later prosecuted. "

María Isabel Santos Caballero and Sebastián Marroquín Santos

The names of Pablo Emilio Escobar's widow, Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo, and their son, Juan Pablo Escobar Henao (who came to call María Isabel Santos Caballero and Sebastián Marroquín Santos, refugees in the countryside), they appeared surprisingly in front of the incredulous eyes of the detectives who attacked the house of Corvo Dolcet.

A contract found in the housing of the money laundering organizer revealed the involvement of the family of the Medellin cartel leader in the conspiracy. Mother and son are referred to as the link between Argentina and the "Caucasus Patron".

They did not do it for free, the document signed on February 15, 2011 specified that, by submitting Corvo Dolcet and Piedrahita, they would receive a commission of 4.5% of Colombian investment in real estate activities to develop . in Pilar.

The repentant badured that Santos Caballeros and Marroquín Santos could not ignore the illicit origin of the money and the relationship of Piedrahita with the cartel of Cali. First, because the sister of Escobar's widow was working with the right hand of the Orejuela brothers.

Second, Piedrahita and Santos Caballeros participated in one of the meetings during which the peace process in Colombia was negotiated after the death of "El Patrón del Mal". The leaders of the Cali cartel and other weight narcos participated in this meeting.

Finally, because "the world of drug trafficking was very small and everyone knew each other," said the collaborator with simplicity.

This is not everything. They are also credited with "having developed a series of acts in the years 2011 and 2012, which would be directly related to money laundering," the prosecution says.

Repercussions

"It is something historic.Through an exceptional investigation, conducted with the cooperation of the three countries and multiple national and international agencies, it was possible to recover definitively, in favor of the Argentine state and all citizens, the proceeds of drug trafficking, "said Bullirch during the decision. from Barral.

"This case demonstrates once again the strong commitment of the Argentinian authorities to fight in a coordinated manner and in cooperation with other countries against drug trafficking, mafia and money laundering. the state's desire to strip the criminals of their badets and recover them in favor of the Argentineans, using all available legal tools ", explained in the same spirit Mariano Federici, president of the FIU.

CDL EA