By infobae
After an investigation of several months, the Buenos Aires Police arrested 10 people. The modus operandi and the wiretaps obtained during the investigation
A gang of Chilean thieves stole a total of 16 4×4 trucks in different Buenos Aires neighborhoods in just 35 days. The modus operandi of the gang, made up mostly of criminals of Chilean nationality, was only to steal Nissan Frontier vehicles, then alter the license plates and prepare false documentation. The final goal: take the trucks to Paraguay.
This week, the gang was dismantled, after an investigation by the City Police. The operation culminated in the arrest of ten suspects.
The detainees were identified as Felipe Andres Crisostomo Gajardo, 41 years old and accused of being the leader; David Bustamante Pacheco David, 32 years old; Jose Ignacio Alarcon Reyes, 34 years old; Jordan Ignacio Arcos Astudullio; Marcelo Fernando Gutierrez Toledo, 23; Katerine Alejandra Guerrero, 36; Baytyare Migaray Valderrama, 20 years old; Rayen Tania Reyes Carcamo, 32, and Jordan Hernan Saavedra, 25.
The nines are of Chilean nationality. None of them had an Argentine document or had been in the country for more than a year. The vast majority lived in passenger hotels.
The only Argentine in the gang was identified as Facundo Gabriel Calvo, a 30-year-old man residing in La Tablada.
The investigation began in June and was based on the analysis of around 2,200 security cameras throughout the city. Thus, it was established that the vehicles were stolen in the Buenos Aires neighborhoods of Saavedra, Villa Devoto, Monte Castro, Villa Real, La Boca, Mataderos, Caballito and Villa Luro. According to police sources indicated to Infobae, each member of the gang had specific roles, which included markers, guards, material authors of the robberies and those in charge of moving the vehicles to their final destination.
The case began after a complaint of theft in the jurisdiction of the Saavedra y Nunez Prosecutor’s Office. Subsequently, similar thefts – of the same model of truck – were reported in other places within the territory of the Federal Capital, which led the City Police to suspect that these were not isolated events. They were not wrong. After reviewing 911 calls and as the days went by, they discovered several similar events.
This is how investigators were able to establish that, in just over a month, a total of 16 Nissan Frontier vans had been stolen in various neighborhoods of the City of Buenos Aires. As part of their operation, they discovered that the robberies were carried out systematically in the early morning hours – between midnight and 4 in the morning – and followed a pattern similar to that used by a criminal gang that attacked Chile in 2022. .
The work to resolve the case was led by the Image Extraction and Analysis Division and the Automotive and Auto Parts Theft Division of the City Police, with Judge Alberto Banos and Prosecutor Jose Campagnoli.
Thanks to the analysis of data from patent readers and the monitoring of city cameras, it was possible to reconstruct the routes used by the gang.
The organization’s work was fast and thorough. First, they marked the truck (in many cases, days before), then they disabled the alarm sound by cutting the corresponding cable from the outside of the vehicle and finally they entered after breaking one of the rear windows or a lock.
Once inside the Frontier, and with a generic key with a new assigned frequency, one of the criminals manipulated the on-board computer called On Board Diagnostic (O.B.D) and assigned the starting frequency corresponding to that key.
Security cameras also captured the participation of a white Hyundai Tucson truck, with a Chilean license plate, in the robberies. It was also discovered that three individuals from that country, one of them with a history of robbery in San Isidro, had entered the country in that vehicle.
In addition, the presence of a white Chevrolet Prisma Joy was identified, which accompanied the stolen trucks outside the jurisdiction of the City. Through the analysis of the license plates of this vehicle, it was determined that it belonged to a vehicle rental company based in the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Corrientes.
Another piece of information that the cameras discovered is that the stolen trucks were heading towards the western area of the province of Buenos Aires, where they were prepared for subsequent shipment to Paraguay. The objective of removing them from the Capital was to prevent them from being detected by the control rings that are located throughout the City of Buenos Aires. The investigation showed that one of the stolen trucks, which had already been tampered with in the province of Misiones, was ready to cross the border with false documentation and altered license plates. In fact, the driver of this vehicle had a history of drug trafficking.
On July 18, Justice requested a series of raids, which led to the arrest of six people, including the leader of the gang, in a gallery located at 800 Lavalle Street. The next day, a man and three women in a home at 400 Esmeralda, who apparently had the intention of fleeing the country. They were caught with armed luggage, with about 130,000 pesos inside.
As a result of the raids, a patent for a Frontier truck located in the province of Santa Fe, three metal objects with two ends suitable for opening vehicles, a bag with four screwdrivers, adhesive tape, three pairs of gloves were seized. , a digital camera, a cutter and a cell phone.
“My security policy is zero tolerance against crime and criminals. We were able to integrate the serious work of a professional and close force with the advantage that the use of technology gives us to find and put an end to this gang of criminals. I want to thank and highlight the work of Justice because without that collaboration we would not have been able to find them,” said the new Minister of Security of Buenos Aires, Gustavo Coria.
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