Ibar Pérez Corradi, alleged mastermind of the 2008 drug-related “Triple Murder” case has been extradited to Argentina. He had escaped to Brazil, where he was arrested, and deported to Paraguay, where a judge authorized his deportation to Argentina.
The cartels have been moving beyond borders. Back in 2008 I posted on how Mexican drug cartels can use Argentina as an entry (ephedrine/pseudoephedrine) and exit (cocaine) point, as the country became a hub for U.S. methamphetamine and European cocaine. By 2013, Argentina was believed to supply 70 tons of cocaine a year to Europe, a third of its annual consumption.
By last year, Cristina Fernåandez de Kirchner’s cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández was accused of involvement in drug trafficking by those involved in ephedrine trafficking in Jorge Lanata’s television program, Periodismo para Todos (Journalism for Everyone), or PPT.)
Here’s the full episode, in Spanish but NSFW,
Which brings us to Pérez Corradi,
Pérez Corradi is accused of being the brains behind the 2008 crime involving General Rodríguez, in which pharmaceutical executives Sebastián Forza, Damién Ferrón and Leopoldo Bina lost their lives. According to local press, they sold ephedrine to Pérez Corradi, who exported it to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. The problem started when the executives supplied an adulterated shipment to take him out of business.
The brothers Cristian, Martín Lanatta and Víctor Schillaci have already been found guilty for the crime. The three of them were part of a spectacular escape at the end of 2015.
From jail, Martín Lanatta accused Cristina Kirchner’s former Cabinet Head of being behind the murders and of directing the ephedrine traffic into the country. This Tuesday, June 20, he accused Aníbal Fernández again of being an “assassin” and a “drug dealer.”
Lanatta (no relation to journalist Jorge Lanata) claims that Pérez Corradi is not linked to the Mexican cartels, contradicting the press reports on the case.
InSight Crime’s analysis points out,
Argentina’s triple murder case carries strong political overtones. In August 2015, a man sentenced to life in prison for his participation in the scheme told local media that Aníbal Fernández, the cabinet chief for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, maintained ties to the ephedrine trade and had ordered the murders. Fernández vigorously denied the accusations, but Pérez Corradi’s arrest has once again put him — and the Kirchner administration’s possible links to ephedrine trafficking rings — under the microscope.
It remains to be seen whether Pérez Corradi will confess (and take the rap), or whether he will involve higher-ups in the Fernández de Kirchner’s government in exchange for leniency.
