Argentina is proud to be “a hostile territory” to drug trafficking, said this Friday (19) the country's Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, in Buenos Aires, where she gave details of the operation that ended last night with the arrest of relatives of Ecuadorian drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as “Fito”.
In a press conference in which members of the national government and the province of Córdoba gave information about the operation that led to the arrest of eight relatives and other people close to the criminal fugitive from Ecuadorian justice and his subsequent deportation, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, concluded that “Argentina will not be a drug trafficking country”.
“There is a decision to expel foreign criminals,” added Defense Minister Luis Petri.
The head of the Security department for the province of Córdoba, Juan Pablo Quinteros, confirmed that eight individuals – whose identities were not revealed – were detained following a joint operation by the Córdoba police and the anti-terrorism and criminal investigation divisions of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA ).
“There is no evidence that they came to carry out their criminal activities in Argentina, but rather to seek refuge in the country,” Quinteros said.
According to Bullrich, they had made prior planning to settle in the country, as in November they bought a house in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Córdoba.
“They entered the country several times, and the hypothesis we have is that, once the family was settled, 'Fito' would escape from prison to join them”, according to the minister.
The attack by an armed group on the facilities of the TC Televisión channel on January 9 in Ecuador, in which employees were taken hostage for several hours, was used as cover for “Fito” to escape from the Guayaquil regional prison.
“We were alerted by the authorities in Ecuador (that) the family of this murderer, 'Fito', was hiding here. That is why it is a very important success for Argentina to have deported them,” declared Bullrich, adding that the government of Córdoba was also doing a parallel investigation into this family and since the two investigations were coordinated, the work of the national and provincial governments was unified.
The detained individuals' entry into the country was legal and there were no warnings against them when they arrived in Argentina on January 5. For this reason, to achieve deportation, the Migration department – part of the Ministry of the Interior – had to cancel the temporary residence of these individuals.
'Fito's' relatives arrived in Guayaquil this Friday, deported on an Argentine Air Force (FAE) plane, which they boarded a few hours after being arrested. (EFE Agency)
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