A gang that were involved in money laundering and organising drug mules has been busted in Constitución, Buneos Aires. Ten people were detained, all of whom are from South Africa except one woman, who is from the United States.
Investigations began last March when a South African man was detained at Ezeiza airport trying to board a flight to Europe. His stomach was full of cocaine capsules. This afternoon, after three raids in the neighbourhood of Constitución, police arrested various men of African origin, and discovered at least 150 capsules of cocaine. Seven men from South Africa were arrested, along with two from Tanzania, and one from Burundi.
It is suspected that the gang were preparing the drug to be sent to Spain and South Africa. A woman from the United States was yesterday arrested at airport Ezeiza with cocaine capsules hidden in various parts of her body which were later detected by an X-ray machine. She was trying to board a flight to Madrid.
The judges Marcelo Aguinsky and Guillermo Brugo ordered the raid of the apartments in Constitución, which were searched by the Operational Division of the Control of Drugs Trafficking.
In one of the apartments on Chacabuco and Cochabamba, they found 150 capsules of cocaine in different stages of preparation; some were ready to be swallowed by mules, and others were still in the making. Ten mobile phones were also confiscated, along with some scales and some documents regarding the transfer of money between South Africa and Europe.
Sources from the case indicated that “the organisation was dedicated to introducing cocaine into South Africa and Europe, and one of the theories is that they were gathering it to sell during the World Cup in 2010″, which will take place in South Africa.
“The value of the procedure has been shown though the dismantling of an international organisation that had branched out to Argentina, receiving money, acquiring the drug, and preparing and sending the parcels to different countries”, said a source.
The arrest in March provoked further investigations which involved tapping phone lines and following suspects, which culminated in the arrest of the woman from the US yesterday in airport Ezeiza.