HomeNewsBriefArgentina President's Office Embroiled in Precursor Chemical Trafficking Scandal
BRIEF

Argentina President's Office Embroiled in Precursor Chemical Trafficking Scandal

ARGENTINA / 2 SEP 2014 BY KYRA GURNEY EN

The president's office in Argentina has become ensnared in a drug production precursor chemical trafficking scandal as the high level corrupt contacts that facilitate the trade are revealed in an ongoing investigation.

On August 29, Judge Maria Servini de Cubria told Mitre Radio she was investigating phone calls made between officials in the presidential residence, the "Casa Rosada" (Pink House) and the Zacarias family, which has ties to the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and has been implicated in trafficking ephedrine -- a chemical used for methamphetamine production

Servini said she had requested the General Secretary of the Presidency, Oscar Parrilli, identify the officials who used the telephone numbers, and threatened to order a raid on the Casa Rosada if Parrilli failed to comply.

Three days later, Parrilli publically identified the officials who were in charge of the offices linked to the phone numbers during the period between 2004 and 2008, which included two former vice presidents, two former cabinet chiefs and Parrilli himself, reported Urgente 24.

InSight Crime Analysis

In July, six former officials of Argentine anti-drug agency Sedronar, including former director Jose Ramon Granero, were accused of facilitating the importation of ephedrine by changing the documentation on the intended use of the substance.

The alleged involvement of members of the Zacarias family in the scheme is bad news for the Kirchner administration. Maximo Zacarias was implicated in the trafficking network after a former Sedronar employee accused him of participating in the importation of 1000 kilos of ephedrine. His brother Miguel was Granero's private secretary, his brother Ruben was the former chief of protocol in the Government Ministry, and his brother Luis works in President Kirchner's Private Secretary.    

Although there is currently no evidence linking the president to the ephedrine trafficking network, both Cristina Kirchner and her predecessor and husband, the late Nestor Kirchner, have faced past accusations of their ties to the illegal trade in precursor chemicals. Pharmaceutical companies were some of the Kirchners' biggest campaign funders, and many of their donors have alleged links with the drug trade and Mexican cartels (pdf). 

Argentina is a major producer and transit point for chemicals used to produce cocaine and methamphetamine, partly because of lax regulations on substances like ephedrine. While the extent of the current government's involvement in the ephedrine trafficking scandal has yet to be determined, the current case points to political protection as one factor contributing to the country's role in precursor trafficking. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 2 AUG 2023

The Meleán crime family once ruled over Zulia, Venezuela, but their patriarch's death led to a series of murders that…

ELITES AND CRIME / 17 NOV 2021

At around 11 p.m. on April 6, 2020, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Solís was returning to the military base he commanded…

COCAINE / 8 FEB 2022

Officials in the United States have revealed that former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández is in fact included on a…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…