The “war” against red driving on the streets of Rio itself affected us all. Dozens of deaths and equal confrontations with law enforcement forces should make local authorities think urgently: the presence of the Rio criminal gang in Argentina is already a tangible reality.
Drug trafficking is a global phenomenon, but with an increasingly clear regional presence in our country. I refer to empirical evidence to make such an assertion. Two specific and very advanced lawsuits in federal jurisdiction reveal the state’s inability to confront the scourge of the neighboring country, which has now become the scourge of our own country as well.
File investigates the smuggling of weapons (FAL rifles) from the outskirts of Buenos Aires, directly to the favelas of Rio and São Pablo. In another, and most important, file, more than 20 people and 40 “ghost” companies used by the mysterious criminal organization in money laundering operations are being investigated.
Just a few months ago, a large portion of those accused of money laundering were spared actual prison time through the tool of an abbreviated trial: open negotiations between a federal prosecutor and those accused of recycling $550 million from the Northern Territory’s real estate, virtual wallets and the world of cryptocurrencies.
Result of the negotiation of the sentence: The accused (now free) did not return a single cent to the Argentine state as a result of his recycling operations. They also (and more seriously) did not provide useful information for the investigation. Suspended prison sentences of only three years.
Argentina has several other characteristics that make it a particularly attractive destination for organized crime to infiltrate and expand. One of them is that the confiscation of property resulting from crime and recycling is negligible. Another “characteristic” is the lack of federal coordination. There is no precedent (in Argentine history) for any comprehensive and strategic plan at the national level.
The country’s territorial extension and lack of central and federal property records serve as additional fertile ground. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (the global anti-money laundering group) had already noted the shortcomings in its last assessment in May 2024, but nothing has changed. Effective prison sentences play an exemplary role. The actual confiscation, even if it is part of the US$550 million already recycled into the country’s legal economy with complete impunity, is also valid.
The Supreme Court, in the Oliveto judgment (2016), speaks of the “strict cause of justice” when pursuing and confiscating drug money. Another problem is the lack of coordination in investigations. The Supreme Court has already warned in the legendary Bouton case, among others: Organized crime expands and acts in stages (in Latin, iter criminis) in an organized manner.
Investigations must also be integrated, with investigation and conviction by a single federal prosecutor and judge who compiles evidence, arrests, and seizures.
The internal institutional crisis also contributes to this scourge. Prosecutors are concerned about the implementation of the new federal criminal procedure law. Lack of budget and trained staff are among the many red flags. Even famous prosecutor Raul Omar Balli has publicly stated that the country’s federal criminal system is on the verge of collapse (not to mention that it has already collapsed).
Professor Federico Varese asserts in his book “The Mafia and Its Movements” (Oxford University Press, 2011) that organized crime shops around the world are looking for jurisdictions with low effectiveness in complying with their rules against complex and transnational crime. He devotes a chapter to the incomprehensible “Argentine experience.” It seems that the rules are all up to date, but without practical application.
Crime is stealthily advancing in our lands and our economy. Now the Rio criminal group appears, but there is much more: Russian oligarchs, Ukrainian mafia groups, the Chinese mafia, and crime from neighboring countries penetrating the country’s permeable borders. Meanwhile, the national state appears passive, without a federal plan.
It is clear that there is a need for a comprehensive and coordinated plan among state authorities. The openness to dialogue that began after the legislative elections between the government and the regions must include more than just approval of a new penal code. Sorry for the expression, but with a new law (with more penalties or more bullets for drug traffickers), the internal crisis raised by the federal judges themselves has never been resolved.
The red tentacles of leadership are already among us. Hearing from the Supreme Court and federal prosecutors is essential to moving forward orderly and by consensus. Otherwise, armed gangs will continue to find fertile ground to advance.