The Supreme Court of Justice confirmed a six-year prison sentence for gendarme Lucas Alejandro Llopiz, who was found guilty of colluding with a marijuana trafficking network and alerting its members about route controls.[1] The ruling was signed by Justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Ricardo Lorenzetti, who dismissed the gendarme’s formal-irregularities appeal.[1] While serving in the Gendarmería Nacional Anti-Drugs Section in Ituzaingó, Llopiz contacted José Alberto Laurencio, identified as one of the organization’s leaders, and passed information about vehicles under investigation.[1]
The investigation began in March 2017 after an informant tip about a Gendarmería control on Route 14 by Squad 57 Santo Tomé.[1] Squad 57 Santo Tomé stopped a Scania truck on Route 14 carrying 4,631 packages of marijuana weighing 3,985.355 kilograms.[1] Investigators said the marijuana entered Argentina from Paraguay through riverside areas of the Paraná River at Cerro Corá and was moved to warehouses in Posadas.[1]
The drug was later loaded into different vehicles and transported by land to Roldán in Santa Fe, Gualeguaychú in Entre Ríos, and the City of Buenos Aires, where it was sold, using scout cars, ambulances and legitimate cargo to hide it.[1] The Federal Court of Corrientes sentenced Llopiz in August 2023, and the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation rejected his defence appeal in May 2024, leaving the sentence in place.[1]
