Argentina Gang Crackdown Has Dried Up Cocaine Exports Security

Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is succeeding


Cocaine exports to Europe have been obstructed, she states


Murders in Rosario center lowest in at least a decade


By Lucinda Elliott


BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, is on a mission to mark out drug gangs in the South American country that have driven increasing violence and resulted in a spike in cocaine shipments to Europe. She states she is being successful.


Argentina has actually grown in importance as a transit hub for cocaine as production from Peru and Bolivia has actually flowed down crucial waterways and forum.altaycoins.com out through river ports such as that of Rosario, Lionel Messi's hometown. Gang-related murders increased in tandem.


Bullrich, in an uncommon interview with global media, informed Reuters the year-old government of libertarian President Javier Milei was separating the gangs and obstructing deliveries from making their method to end markets, including to Europe, where the cocaine market has broadened in the last few years.


"We've had record cocaine seizures which's created terrific respect for us regionally and likewise in Europe, since (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was found in Europe," she said at her office in Buenos Aires, including that "of course there may be some deliveries that were undiscovered."


The security ministry confirmed that cocaine was not found in any shipments that crossed the South Atlantic from Argentina to a significant European port in 2024. Reuters was not able to individually validate that.


Once a rival to Milei as the governmental candidate for the main conservative bloc, Bullrich is now leading the on crime, tightening borders with Brazil and Bolivia, privatizing some jails and utilizing artificial intelligence to track gangs.


In Rosario, according to city government figures, murders dropped to 90 in 2015 - the least expensive in at least the last years and down from nearly 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, the year before Milei and Bullrich took office.


"We decided to hit hard against the gangs," Bullrich said, adding that cooperation between the national and local governments in Rosario had actually been an essential aspect, along with the courts taking a tougher line. The federal government has also targeted drug kingpins already behind bars.


"We eliminated the power that the drug bosses had in the jails, who utilized the jails to keep their drug crime rings going. We isolated them," she said.


Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence professional and president of regional think tank CRIES, credited an emphasis on gathering intelligence with aiding the crime reduction.


"There was a concerted security effort by the nationwide federal government to prioritize Rosario, with a focus on criminal intelligence instead of simply having more authorities on the streets, which is a a lot more practical technique," he said.


Bullrich has actually sent a costs to congress to establish a new anti-mafia law, similar to U.S. RICO legislation, to remove criminal networks, and said she has actually likewise gained from security forces in Britain and Italy.


In 2015, she hosted El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, and visited his mega-prison that holds tens of thousands of gang members in tough conditions that have drawn praise from hardline law-and-order political leaders and criticism from rights groups. Photos have actually revealed rows of tattooed and topless inmates kneeling with their hands behind the heads.


"In our case, our system has been a little bit, let's state, less severe. But when we need to be tough, we are difficult," said Bullrich.


TOUGHER BORDERS


Bullrich informed Reuters she was enhancing border controls to stop drug gangs, preparing visits to cocaine-growing locations in Peru, and improving cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation.


Bullrich said the border with Bolivia was being reinforced, including by building a brief stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is also doing more tracking of entry points with Brazil where there had been a "lack of control in current years," she said.


"We're going to begin a program, a strategy, we're taking troops to the border location with Brazil," she said.


Authorities in Bolivia and Brazil did not instantly react to an ask for gratisafhalen.be remark. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, recently invited the idea of reinforcing border security in a reaction to the measures.


Bullrich, a political veteran who has actually brought Milei essential center-ground support, said she had been won over to the libertarian's more comprehensive economic and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have actually divided Argentines however helped stabilize the nation.


The 2 are previous competitors. During the election race, Milei identified her a leftist "bomb-thrower" - a referral to her time with the youth wing of the Peronist motion - to which Bullrich had shot back that the former economic expert was mentally unstable.


Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and she and her bloc were assisting him as he seeks to gain seats in legal mid-term elections set for later this year.


"We're more libertarian than conservative now," she said.


(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott. Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Daniel Ramos in La Paz; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O'Brien)