Argentina Gang Crackdown has actually Dried Up Cocaine Exports, Security

Patricia Bullrich says crackdown on drug gangs is being successful

Cocaine exports to Europe have actually been obstructed, she states

Murders in Rosario center lowest in a minimum of a decade

By Lucinda Elliott

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, oke.zone is on a mission to stamp out drug gangs in the South American nation that have actually driven rising violence and resulted in a spike in cocaine shipments to Europe. She says she is being successful.

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

Bullrich, in an unusual interview with global media, informed Reuters the year-old government of libertarian President Javier Milei was separating the gangs and blocking shipments from making their method to end markets, consisting of to Europe, where the cocaine market has broadened recently.

"We have actually had record cocaine seizures and that's generated terrific regard for us regionally and also in Europe, because (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was detected in Europe," she said at her office in Buenos Aires, adding that "obviously there may be some shipments that were undetected."

The security ministry validated 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 confirm that.

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

In Rosario, according to local 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 office.

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

"We eliminated the power that the drug managers had in the jails, who utilized the jails to keep their drug criminal offense rings going. We separated them," she said.

Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence professional and valetinowiki.racing president of regional think tank CRIES, credited a focus on event intelligence with aiding the criminal offense reduction.

"There was a concerted security effort by the national government to focus on Rosario, with a concentrate on criminal intelligence rather than simply having more police on the streets, which is a much more viable technique," he said.

Bullrich has sent an expense to congress to develop a brand-new anti-mafia law, akin to U.S. RICO legislation, to remove criminal networks, and said she has also gained from security forces in Britain and Italy.

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

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

TOUGHER BORDERS

Bullrich informed Reuters she was enhancing border controls to stop drug gangs, rocksoff.org planning check outs to cocaine-growing areas in Peru, users.atw.hu 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 developing a short stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is likewise doing more monitoring of entry points with Brazil where there had been a "lack of control over the last few years," she said.

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

Authorities in Bolivia and Brazil did not instantly react to an ask for comment. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, last week welcomed the idea of enhancing border security in a reaction to the procedures.

Bullrich, a political veteran who has brought Milei crucial center-ground assistance, said she had been won over to the libertarian's more comprehensive financial and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have divided Argentines however 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 financial expert was mentally unstable.

Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and she and her bloc were assisting him as he looks for to gain seats in legislative mid-term elections set for later on 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)