Argentina Gang Crackdown has Dried Up Cocaine Exports, Security - 126

Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is being successful

Cocaine exports to Europe have been obstructed, she says

Murders in Rosario center most affordable in at least a years

By Lucinda Elliott

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, is on a mission to stamp out drug gangs in the South American nation that have actually driven rising violence and led to a spike in cocaine deliveries to Europe. She states she is succeeding.

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

Bullrich, in an uncommon interview with global media, told Reuters the year-old federal government of libertarian President Javier Milei was breaking up the gangs and obstructing deliveries from making their method to end markets, of to Europe, where the cocaine market has expanded in recent years.

"We have actually had record cocaine seizures and that's produced great respect for us regionally and likewise in Europe, because (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was discovered in Europe," she said at her workplace in Buenos Aires, including that "of course there may be some deliveries that were unnoticed."

The security ministry validated that cocaine was not found in any deliveries that crossed the South Atlantic from Argentina to a significant European port in 2024. Reuters was not able to independently verify that.

Once a competitor to Milei as the presidential candidate for the main conservative bloc, Bullrich is now leading the crackdown on criminal activity, tightening up borders with Brazil and Bolivia, privatizing some jails and using expert system to track gangs.

In Rosario, according to city government figures, murders dropped to 90 last year - the most affordable in at least the last decade and down from almost 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, the year before Milei and Bullrich took workplace.

"We chose to hit hard against the gangs," Bullrich said, including that cooperation between the nationwide and regional governments in Rosario had actually been a key aspect, along with the courts taking a harder line. The federal government has likewise targeted drug kingpins currently behind bars.

"We took away the power that the drug managers had in the jails, who used the jails to keep their drug criminal activity rings going. We isolated them," she said.

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

"There was a collective security effort by the national federal government to focus on Rosario, with a focus on criminal intelligence rather than just having more cops on the streets, which is a a lot more viable technique," he said.

Bullrich has actually sent out a costs to congress to establish a brand-new anti-mafia law, comparable to U.S. RICO legislation, to take down criminal networks, and said she has 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 10s of countless gang members in hard conditions that have drawn praise from hardline law-and-order politicians and criticism from rights groups. Photos have actually shown rows of tattooed and partially nude prisoners kneeling with their hands behind the heads.

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

TOUGHER BORDERS

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

Bullrich said the border with Bolivia was being enhanced, consisting of by constructing a short stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is likewise doing more tracking of entry points with Brazil where there had actually been a "lack of control in the last few years," she said.

"We're going to start a program, a plan, we're taking soldiers to the border location with Brazil," she said.

Authorities in Bolivia and garagesale.es Brazil did not instantly respond to a request for comment. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, recently welcomed the idea of enhancing border security in a response to the steps.

Bullrich, a political veteran who has actually brought Milei essential center-ground support, said she had been won over to the libertarian's wider financial and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have divided Argentines but assisted support the nation.

The two are former rivals. During the election race, Milei labeled her a leftist "bomb-thrower" - a recommendation to her time with the youth wing of the Peronist motion - to which Bullrich had actually shot back that the previous economic expert was emotionally unstable.

Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and she and her bloc were helping 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