Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is prospering

Cocaine exports to Europe have actually been obstructed, she says

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, is on an objective to mark out drug gangs in the South American country that have actually driven rising violence and caused a spike in cocaine shipments to Europe. She says she is prospering.

Argentina has actually grown in significance as a transit hub for cocaine as production from Peru and Bolivia has actually streamed down key waterways and out through river ports such as that of Rosario, Lionel . Gang-related murders increased in tandem.

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

"We have actually had record cocaine seizures which’s produced excellent regard for us regionally and likewise in Europe, because (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was found in Europe,” she said at her workplace in Buenos Aires, adding that “obviously there might be some shipments that were unnoticed.“

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

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

In Rosario, prazskypantheon.cz according to city government figures, murders dropped to 90 in 2015 - the most affordable in a minimum of the last years and below nearly 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, the year before Milei and Bullrich took office.

"We chose to strike hard against the gangs,” Bullrich said, adding that cooperation between the nationwide and regional federal governments in Rosario had actually been a key aspect, in addition to the courts taking a tougher line. The federal government has likewise targeted drug kingpins already behind bars.

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

Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence expert and president of regional think tank CRIES, credited an emphasis on gathering intelligence with aiding the criminal activity decrease.

"There was a collective security effort by the national government to prioritize Rosario, with a concentrate on criminal intelligence instead of simply having more police on the streets, which is a much more practical technique,” he said.

Bullrich has actually sent a costs to congress to establish a brand-new anti-mafia law, similar to U.S. RICO legislation, to take down criminal networks, and archmageriseswiki.com said she has likewise 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 thousands of gang members in difficult conditions that have actually drawn praise from hardline law-and-order political leaders and criticism from rights groups. Photos have shown rows of tattooed and topless inmates kneeling with their hands behind the heads.

"In our case, our system has been a bit, let’s say, less extreme. But when we need to be difficult, we are difficult,” said Bullrich.

TOUGHER BORDERS

Bullrich informed Reuters she was strengthening border controls to stop drug gangs, planning visits to cocaine-growing areas 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 strengthened, consisting of by building a brief stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is likewise doing more monitoring 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 begin a program, a plan, we’re taking soldiers to the border location with Brazil,” she said.

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