Patricia Bullrich urged Kicillof to move forward with the Anti-Mafia Law in the province

National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich held a press conference this Wednesday in which she addressed the triple murder linked to drug trafficking that occurred in Florencio Varela and explained how the Interpol operation that led to the arrest of “Pequeño J” and Matías Ozorio, the main suspects in the case, unfolded.

In this context, Bullrich urged the ultra-Kirchnerist governor Axel Kicillof to apply the Anti-Mafia Law in the province: “Today there are nine people in custody in this case. The law against organized crime means that those nine detainees, plus everyone who was involved, for example the 45 who say they saw the video, will receive the maximum sentence, the same as the top leader of that organization,” the official stated.

The minister elaborated on her position: “The application of that law would not result in someone receiving a two- or three-year sentence just for having been in the car. No, everyone would receive the maximum sentence. Why? Because everyone participated in the murder. That is the law that Argentina has today and that we are asking Buenos Aires province, please, to apply.”

The Interpol operation

Regarding the operation aimed at capturing “Pequeño J,” identified by the judiciary as the one who ordered the murder of Lara, Morena, and Brenda, Bullrich explained that everything began last Friday, when, based on various leads, two international Interpol red alerts were requested: one for Matías Ozorio, considered the right-hand man of the main accused, and another for Víctor Sotacuro, owner of the vehicle that allegedly provided support during the victims' abduction.

The first to be arrested was Sotacuro: “The Ministry of Security of Jujuy, the Argentine Federal Police, and the Gendarmerie at the border between La Quiaca and Villazón, based on a series of investigations conducted on buses that depart and pass through Santiago del Estero, along with camera reviews, identified Sotacuro's name, who had traveled from Buenos Aires province to La Quiaca hidden on a shopping tour,” Bullrich detailed.

The minister added: “The Jujuy police began searching hotels together with the Argentine Federal Police and the Bolivian police, because that is an integrated area; La Quiaca and Villazón are two cities divided by a dirt road. At that moment, the Villazón police notified us that Sotacuro was in a hotel six blocks from the border.”

Sotacuro was transferred that same night to La Quiaca, then to the capital of Jujuy, and by Monday he had already arrived in Buenos Aires to be placed at the disposal of the judiciary.

“On Sunday I contacted the prosecutors in charge of the case and pointed out the importance of having the collaboration of the Federal Security Forces to carry out the international search and capture, since we were working on the hypothesis that the fugitives had left the country, possibly through Bolivia or Paraguay to Peru,” Bullrich explained during the conference.

After that meeting and a thorough analysis of evidence, it was determined that Ozorio and “Pequeño J” were in Peru. “Ozorio was arrested on the street; he was sleeping on the street. That is, this is an organization that doesn't appear to have a very complex structure for having committed such brutality. He stated that he had passed through Trujillo and had been there for a week," the official added.

"That is, he had been there since the moment the triple murder was committed. He had escaped and was a person known in the environment of villa 1-11-14 in the city of Buenos Aires,” the minister concluded.