the explosive lawsuit filed by the public prosecutor’s office in the mega-trial on police and judicial corruption

“Over time, we are confronted with organized, systematic and sustained practices through which police officers not only covered up illegal activities but also actively intervened in their organization and management.“, he assured in his argument before the Federal Court No. 1 of San Martín Prosecutor Marcelo García Berrowhich required four hearings to complete the complex framework of the case.

Suffice it to remember that there are no precedents for what began more than a year ago in the Federal Courts of San Martín: 32 defendantsamong them 24 police officers from Buenos Aires (some high-ranking), two lawyers and half a dozen false witnesses were indicted for their involvement in a vast corruption machine fed by ties to drug traffickers.

And García Berro’s conclusion came this Monday with the demand for a punishment: the prosecutor requested Penalties of up to 17 years in prison for the police chiefs involved.

Among them is Adrián Baeta (aka “Palermo”)who worked in the DDI in Quilmes, is considered the mastermind of the theft of half a ton of cocaine and had contacts with a drug financier whose murder he was suspected of.

Locked up in Ezeiza Prison Complex II, Baeta listened to everything via Zoom and was careful not to appear in the images of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) cameras.

The prosecutor considered Baeta – and two other senior officials of the Quilmes DDI – as contributors to the crimes of “Use of a false public instrument“, “ideological untruth”.“,”Supposition“(bribes) and”Possession of narcotics for sale is made more difficult by being a public official“.

For four repentants who testified in the case, the sentencing requirement was less severe. Of course, a false witness involved in the most serious case in the trial (“White Lions”) received a request for a sentence of 15.5 years in prison.

On the other hand, the San Isidro DDI police were accused of having a “illegal association“was dedicated to managing the drug business in their area – stealing drugs from the drug traffickers themselves – and for one of their bosses, García Berro demanded 17 years in prison.

“They followed the logic of the drug trade, adapted to its movements, protected its spread, facilitated its spread and – logically – prevented its suppression. Along the way, they maintained some of the illegal business Thanks to this complicity, many drug traffickers remain at large“He added, giving a broad panorama rarely heard in a hearing.

This is a scandalous case no matter how you look at it. Although they are four facts that were examined at the time by the federal judge of San Isidro Sandra Arroyo Salgado-, one of them stands out: the “White Lions” operation (December 2013), an armed police, a false procedure to steal half a ton of cocaine from the powerful Loza clan

Perlita 1: One of the main defendants Buenos Aires police officer Adrián “Palermo” Baeta (55)alleged brain of it “Mexican”. The drug information was given to him by his contact in town, Diego Guastini (45)the biggest Argentine drug launderer, murdered by hitmen in Quilmes on October 28, 2019, after expressing his remorse.

Baeta was the first to arrive on the scene. Some even believe that he had him killed.

Perlita 2: This case is the one that has now cost him his job former prosecutor Claudio ScapolanThe then untouchable man will be tried in a second phase for minor crimes. But this reason cost him his dismissal. And that’s exactly what prosecutor Marcelo García Berro pointed out in his argument. Three important paragraphs:

1-“Another important liaison was the then public prosecutor Claudio Scapolan. His intervention in the events allows us to understand why the police chiefs deliberately contacted him instead of contacting the federal prosecutor on duty, which corresponds to Moreno’s jurisdiction, as indicated in the official duty“.

2-“The maneuver corresponds to what is known in police jargon as “making a loop”: that is, artificially constructing an intervention in a foreign jurisdiction, in this case the DDI of Quilmes, using human and logistical resources for this purpose. In this way, they managed to conceal the sting operation as part of an alleged legal procedure, while intending to steal a large amount of the shipment of high-purity cocaine.“.

3-“It has been fully proven in this process that reducing Scapolan’s responsibility to a simple document falsification – as if it were just an isolated act of administrative falsification – represents a false and notoriously inadequate vision. This rating is too low for you. (…) His intervention was not limited to the formal approval of an act or the passive confirmation of an irregular procedure.”.

“On the contrary, his role was structural within the criminal system: participated consciously, actively and sustainably in the execution of the criminal activities. “He knew in advance what would happen, he participated in the design of the simulated operation and provided legal cover so that the theft of narcotics could be committed, evidence tampered with and impunity ensured for the real perpetrators and himself,” he concluded..

The first hearing of the trial took place at the end of October 2024 and began with the reading of the motion to be referred to the trial by the Federal Prosecutor of San Isidro Fernando Dominguezresponsible for a difficult investigation that he was able to carry out despite countless political pressures.

Although it may seem tedious, it is impressive to read the charges against the police officers in one go:

“Because he was part of an organization whose mission was to ensure the efficient delivery of judicial services and the prevention and prosecution of crimes, when in reality it was a criminal enterprise strategically set up by the defendants – mainly judicial and police officials.“.

The defendant “They made distorted use of the functional tools given to them by the penal power of the State to investigate and prosecute drug trafficking crimes with the exclusive aim of personally benefiting from the regulation and management of the drug trade, which many of them were forced by their function to combat, through the use of a variety of criminal behaviors aimed at this goal.“.

“In short, it was a network of illegality that involved abuse of power and corruption of the officials in charge of enforcing the law with high responsibility and wide powers, which they used to structure a system that managed, managed and to some extent regulated the drug trade, thus becoming another cog in the drug trafficking chain and within which countless crimes were committed.“.

The case, which will not reach a verdict until early 2026 due to the court fair, exploded in mid-2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 quarantine. At that time, dozens of raids were carried out on police stations, delegations and even Scapolan’s office.

The image the file revealed was brutal: half a ton of cocaine – stolen in an anti-drug operation by the Buenos Aires police – stopped at a baseball park in Quilmes owned by an officer and ended up in Mar Chiquita for sale on the coast. The latter was said by a former police officer who worked for the gang.

The debate raised the White Lions case (international drug trafficking), but also others that followed a different logic: running drug trafficking gangs in the suburbs to control the internal market.

“In this second phenomenon, a territorial control device for the sale of narcotics is introduced, which keeps fake statistics (…) In this phenomenon, the members of the San Isidro DDI robbed drug dealers who acted locally and committed other crimes with the aim of controlling the market.“.

The panorama presented by García Berro and his team – made up of Guillermo Silva and Mercedes Soiza Reilly – is frightening: “These groups remain active, which makes this process particularly relevant. This is not just about ensuring that the defendant receives the appropriate sanction; to repair the profound damage that these acts of corruption and drug trafficking cause to the social fabric“.