Along with the homicide rate, which went from 18.5 to 22 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last year, Suspicious transaction reports grow in Rosario. The trend was disclosed by the Financial Information Unit (UIF). The advance of criminal groups occurs in conjunction with a financial network that has historically been dedicated to “laundering” money from illegal grain sales. The investigations are advancing, but the businessmen involved are not in jail. The unusual case of members of “Los Monos” who continued to open companies to launder money from jail through a tool created during the government of Mauricio Macri.
The police chronicles of those killed by drug trafficking in Rosario are also the result of an economic equation, a large illegal business that became naturalized and spread its tentacles. “The platforms that were used in recent decades to launder money from the illegal grain trade are the same ones that criminal gangs use today. It is a market that has been growing exponentially since 2010”, a qualified source who was in charge of these investigations explained to Ámbito.
Along these lines, he explained that bars, real estate agencies and tourism agencies are some of the items chosen by the drug traffickers to formalize the money that they get with their illegal activities, although the most efficient front is in the financial sector, with the intermediation even of recognized operators of the Rosario City. They do so in the form of mutuals, trusts or simply money tables. In some cases, they grant loans with rates that go up to 30% per month, in others, they operate with the check discount modality.
Far from being the solution to an infinitely larger problem, the installation of a FIU branch in the city aims to speed up the work that the agency has already been doing. “In recent years, the number of reports of suspicious operations carried out in Rosario has increased.. In a similar sense, said city is one of the ones with the largest number of registered obligated subjects, ”says the resolution published in the official gazette in its argument.
The Monkeys, “entrepreneurs”
In October 2021, Ámbito revealed that “Los Monos” opened some 40 ghost companies in 2018 under the regime of Simplified Stock Companies (SAS), a figure created during the Macri government to be used by entrepreneurs to register companies in 24 hours, without controls, without initial capital and without the need to specify a clear object. With this procedure, the drug gang issued some 12,000 apocryphal invoices and laundered more than $1.2 billion.
The maneuver formally consists of a investigation of the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ). According to the compulsa, when the narco group registered these companies, there was no type of monitoring nor did it go through the supervision of human beings. The director of Societies of the IGJ, Darío De León, revealed to Ámbito that from inside the prison the criminals continued to open societies. “Once they were already detained, these same people presented one SAS per week and the system allowed it because it was totally automatic. Since it could be done remotely, someone outside had kept the keys and they continued to operate,” the official explained.
The IGJ decided to change the registration system to increase controls. He did it with data on the table. “One in six SAS are suspected of issuing apocryphal invoices, it is not an isolated case,” said De León, who added that “controlling legal entities is also part of the fight against drug trafficking.”
Investigated, but at home
A series of episodes link the Rosario financial universe with the activity of drug traffickers. One of the most outstanding is the one starring Patricio Carey, owner of the Cofyrco firm that is installed in the heart of Rosario. The story dates back to September 2020, when Newell’s narco and barrabrava, Marcelo “Coto” Medrano, was murdered and messages were found on his phone stating that hours before he was executed he had illegally bought $17 from him. ,000 to the employer.
Then, searches were carried out at homes linked to Carey. There, at least 174 lost and stolen documents were found that were used to buy dollars at the official exchange rate. Those currencies then turned to the informal market. “Ultimately, cocaine is like a commodity that is paid for in dollars. The gangs need someone to sell them to them,” said federal prosecutor Federico Reynares Solari in dialogue with the local radio station Sí 98.9.
Despite being accused of cover-up and money laundering, in November of last year Carey traveled to the World Cup in Qatar to support the Argentine team. At the beginning of December, after the coronation of Lionel Messi’s team, the businessman returned to Argentina but was immediately arrested in Ezeiza, accused of having pressured a witness.
The time in jail for the financier was brief. On January 6, Chamberlain Guillermo Llaudet, in full court fair, decided to return his freedom and refer the proceedings to the exceptional jurisdiction. Hours later, the Rosario print media took to the streets with an advertisement for a Carey group company promoting the search for funds for a trust fund for the construction of a five-star hotel in the city.
In Rosario it is not the only name of weight in the business world that is under the magnifying glass. The former owner of Terminal Puerto Rosario, Gustavo Shanahan, is also accused of being part of a drug trafficking structure for illegally selling dollars to criminals. In the midst of the strong devaluation that occurred in mid-2019, the prosecutors in the case gathered communications with the drug traffickers, who expressed concern about not being left “barefoot” with the jump in the exchange rate.
Pending a sentence, the businessman is currently serving house arrest. A source familiar with the process told Ámbito that in order to grant him this benefit “he weighed the criterion of rooting.” That is, the assets that the businessman owns in the country. Curious contradiction, since it is being investigated precisely that this fortune was acquired by criminal conduct.
“It is easy to fall for those who are not perceived by members of the Judiciary as members of their own class and prosecute crimes that are committed in the less favored neighborhoods of Rosario by people who are not part of elevated social circles,” said prosecutor Federico Reynares Solari. , who concluded: “But the blood of this violent crime in marginal areas is the money that is disputed in the center of the city for more complex structures, which have lawyers, accountants and businessmen.”
Source: Ambito
