MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Drug gang expansion feared as federal forces handle security in Rosario

“If they are not stopped,” these gangs will “move to another territory,” Roncaglia warned

As federal troops are deployed to tackle drug trafficking in the city of Rosario, authorities in other parts of the province of Santa Fe and its neighboring territories now fear gangs might migrate in search of other, less challenging venues to keep their illegal business going.

Drug lords seem to feel at ease in Córdoba, where the family of Ecuadorean fugitive Fito Macias was located not so long ago and deported from an exclusive country club home near Villa Carlos Paz.

Entre Ríos Security Minister and former Federal Police Chief Nestor Roncaglia warned that “when the light of the State is focused on drug crime, it is common that the actors choose other territories where to continue operating because they are not going to be good guys.”

“If they are not stopped, they will” move to another territory such as “Córdoba, north of Santa Fe, or Entre Rios,” he added. Roncaglia also pointed out that the Entre Ríos government was “attentive and busy.” In an interview with Infobae, he stressed that “the issue is to join efforts and be vigilant.”

Law enforcement operations have been strengthened along the Rosario-Victoria and also in the Paraná-Santa Fe crossing through the sub-fluvial tunnel.

Federal Security Minister Patricia Bullrich was in Córdoba Monday to oversee the precautions taken there in case drug gangs choose that destination. “We have come to put in place mechanisms that allow us to improve security in Córdoba. Working on drug trafficking, routes, controls, [and] investigations...”

“We work with firmness, with conviction, and taking care of those who take care of us,” she added. In her view, “we went from drug trafficking gangs to narco-terrorist gangs” and therefore what happened in Rosario needed to be prevented in Córdoba.

In this scenario, Governors Martín Llaryora of Córdoba and Maximiliano Pullaro of Santa Fe have been working shoulder to shoulder as Córdoba's Anti-Narcotics Police (FPA) were deployed to the interprovincial border.