Rosario.− Modest, without showing anything, while murders have decreased due to the settling of scores between retail drug gangs Rosario has become a logistical and strategic node for cross-border drug trafficking.
To favorable geographical conditions, e.g The comprehensive presence of the Paraná-Paraguay WaterwayWhich has access to the Atlantic Ocean, features related to the city’s criminal history and other attributes, such as the presence of… A strong “parallel” financial system and good money laundering mechanisms.
Unlike drug cartels, such as Los Monos and Esteban Alvarado, among others, These organizations did not become visible due to the violence Nor for the crimes that bloodied Rosario for more than a decade and a half, But to work. It is much easier for investigators to discover leaky walls and compartments in the floor than to unravel the movement of money on a large scale, with a complex panel that includes… Cryptocurrencies, Virtual wallets also Foreign transactions.
The geographical location of Rosario is a key point in Hydrovia More than 30 private ports spread over an area of 80 km. For a while now Local organized crime structures with international reach, Brazilian gangs with an operational presence, and Colombian money laundering networks are beginning to emerge..
What was presented for years as violence between local gangs disputing over territory has now become far more complex: the transformation of Rosario’s criminal organizations into essential links for terrorist groups. Smuggling chains linking Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which use the ports of Santa Fe as export platforms to European, Asian and African markets..
Cases Fabian Belluso, Jorge GranerBrazilian Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos, nicknamed FuminhoPCC President, W Brian Bilbao They are not isolated episodes: they are manifestations of a systemic phenomenon that is beginning to emerge Redefining organized crime in the regionThis is according to several sources I reviewed Nation In the federal judiciary and in the Ministry of Homeland Security.
Faced with this new scenario, Minister Patricia Bullrich made the call two weeks ago “Paraña Plan”It is a strategy aimed at strengthening control and security in the Hidrovia region, one of the most extensive, strategic and dark river corridors in the region, over which Argentina shares control and jurisdiction with Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.
In the Department of Homeland Security They warn that criminal networks have exploited the geographic reach, density of public and private ports, and the technological limitations of traditional controls to spread large-scale illicit operations. It includes a preventive program Using advanced technologies, such as radars, drones, thermal cameras, container scanners and real-time monitoring systemsAs well as unifying A Inter-agency cooperation plan at the national and international levels.
A growing problem in the region is the increasing arrival of small planes loaded with cocaine departing from Bolivia and Paraguay. In the early morning of November 12, Tostado was detected by radar at the same time Three small, unregistered planes were later confirmed to have been loaded with cocaine. One crashed in Arquito while two others landed with nearly 1,000 kilograms of cocaine that belonged to drug trafficker Brian Bilbao.
Evolution of drug dealers
Fabian Belluso’s story illustrates the first stage of becoming a logistics entrepreneur. In 2015, Belloso took command of a structure operating from Villa Banana, in the southwestern region of Rosario, controlling drug sales points while exercising territorial control. But what sets him apart from other local crime bosses is… Its ability to link with international suppliers.
Belluso’s work was not limited to distributing cocaine in Rosario. He had direct contacts with the Loza clan – whose leaders resided in Spain – and with Brazilian PCC structures and with Bolivian suppliers who guaranteed him a steady supply of highly purified drugs. He was part of one of Alvarado’s connections and after the drug lord was sentenced to life in prison, he took up his own independence.
Not only did his organization sell on the streets of Rosario, it redistributed to other provinces and, according to court records, engaged in export operations through the Rosario and Campana port terminals.
Belluso was arrested in September 2021 after a lengthy operation that included more than 70 raids. Its structure employed at least 50 people with clearly differentiated roles: logistics, distribution, assassins, and money launderers. It was a criminal enterprise on the rise, and – as Proconar sources warned – Its aspirations to become a national federation.
Belluso’s partner, Jorge Adelaide Granier Ruiz, who gave it this international scope, built a structure that operates in several places. He confirmed links with Colombian gangs, operators in Paraguay, logistics contacts in Brazil and Argentine partners, which ensured he used legal companies to launder money. Originally from Bolivia, Graner is identified as One of the main contacts between South American cocaine suppliers and European buyers.
He was arrested in March 2023 in the city of Jaguari, Rio Grande do Sul state, but judicial investigations revealed this. His network was able to export more than two tons of cocaine in less than three years. The Graner case showed that Rosario was no longer merely an internal consumer market or a territorial redistribution point: It has been an export platform to the world.
Brian Bilbao represents the most sophisticated example of drug trafficking in Rosario. This drug tycoon has created his own air infrastructure. Between 2020 and 2023 Bilbao has consolidated an organization capable of transporting hundreds of kilograms of cocaine a month from Bolivia and Paraguay to Argentina using its own small planes, secret landing strips in private fields, and professional pilots hired specifically for this mission.
Its structure operates from airports in the country – Campo Tempo, in Oliveros and in a field in Carrizales, where Planes would land loaded with cocaine twice a week.
Bilbao was not violent. He was not involved in shootings or disputed territory on the streets of Rosario with Los Monos or other violent gangs. His work was logistical: bringing in drugs, storing them in the warehouses of legal companies that he himself controlled, distributing them to Buenos Aires, Cordoba and other provinces, but mainly shipping them abroad.. The suspicion among researchers is that Bilbao He was charged for his services with cocaineIt’s a common thing in this field It is then sold to a supplier on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
He laundered money by buying theaters, taxis, bars and biodiesel companies. When his brother Waldo was arrested in September 2025, the police found his apartment A hiding place was built inside the bathroom, with a metal ladder and an escape system similar to the one used by Chapo Guzmán. Brian Bilbao was arrested on November 12 in a small plane that landed loaded with 400 kilograms of cocaine. He ended his two years hiding in a field in Buenos Aires, in the same place where he built his empire.
A week after Bilbao’s arrest, he was arrested Pablo StradiottoHe is a lawyer linked to the organization and, according to judicial sources, is responsible for the money laundering business structure. Stradiotto lived in the Fisherton neighborhood and played soccer for the exclusive Rosario Jockey Club.
Cocaine smuggling from the ports of Rosario and San Lorenzo is the common denominator between all these structures. The ports of Santa Fe are central to the geography of drug trafficking in South America for three reasons: their strategic location on the waterway, the volume of daily transactions, and weak customs controls.. This legitimate trade flow is the perfect cover for cocaine smuggling. Drug organizations use real export companies, hire experienced customs brokers, and camouflage drugs in containers transporting legal products: soybeans, corn and rice, as happened with the 1,500 kilograms of cocaine seized in Empalme Graneros in 2022.
The case numbness From 2015 is a clear example of this development. A Colombian-Argentine structure led by the brothers Ehrman and Williams Triana Peña I was able to build a network that connects North Valley Poster Colombian with operators from Rosario and local businessmen who want to facilitate the logistics infrastructure.
The plan was to export 40 tons of rice infused with high-purity cocaine to Guinea-Bissau, apparently within the framework of the United Nations humanitarian program to eradicate hunger. The drugs were to be redistributed to Europe from Africa. The organization operated from Rosario using law firms as a front: International Trade and Commerce, owned by launderer Carlos Yurelme Duarte Diaz and Argentine lawyer Guillermo Heisinger.
Duarte Díaz, who was killed in October 2025 in Bogota during a reckoning after presenting himself as repentant, resided in Rosario and worked with complete impunity. He laundered money by buying up soccer players, signed agreements with clubs in the Argentine Primera C league, and even tried to build an incinerator at Villa Gobernador Gálvez with an investment of two million pesos through the Provincias Unidas mutual fund.
When the organization fell in September 2015, after gendarmes raided a tax warehouse with information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, forty tons of rice were found ready to be shipped. In July 2020, Federal Oral Court No. 5 sentenced thirteen members to sentences of up to ten years in prison.
The convergence of local structures, Brazilian cartels and Colombian networks in Rosario has created a criminal ecosystem that can no longer be dismantled by traditional police operations. The arrests of Belluso, Graner, Fuminio and Bilbao were important blows, but they did not end the problem. because What changed was not just the people, but the model.