Earlier this year, Argentina’s government announced that it had dismantled the criminal group the Menores in Rosario, the country’s third-largest city, where drug-related violence is rife. 

But the group has continued to surface in criminal investigations and violent incidents, and grown to become one of the most powerful criminal entities in Rosario following the weakening of other gangs, the Monos and the Alvarado Clan, which dominated the city’s criminal landscape for years. 

The group built its power primarily through the retail distribution of cocaine and marijuana but has also been linked to illegal gambling and casinos, money laundering, and criminal economies connected to Rosario Central’s barra brava, the soccer club’s supporters group.

SEE ALSO: The Menores Profile

Raids in March that amounted to small drug seizures and six arrests did not reach the core of the organization or weaken its influence over Rosario Central’s barra brava, according to local media. Matías Ignacio Gazzani, identified as one of the group’s main alleged leaders, remains at large, while other key figures have similarly evaded the reach of authorities.

The Menores continue to be connected to violent incidents since the March raids. In early August, a home in Rosario was attacked by gunfire, and the assailants left a message directed at Gazzani and another alleged member of the group. It was not the first message targeting Gazzani, as his name had appeared in similar threats in previous months. 

The group’s flexible structure could be complicating efforts to dismantle the Menores, which operates as a network of cells and criminal actors that can coordinate without relying on a single leader, according to local analysis. This form of organization has led investigators and authorities to describe the group as a kind of “narco-cooperative.“

To learn more about this criminal group, read InSight Crime’s full profile here.

Main image: The exact location where Andrés “Pillín” Bracamonte, the former leader of Rosario Central’s organized supporters’ group (barra brava), was killed. The Menores are suspected of being behind his murder. Rosario, February 2026.