They suspended for 30 days an operation at one of Lázaro Báez's ranches because the sheep are in lambing season

RÍO GALLEGOS.− A judicial operation at the Alquinta ranch, one of the properties under suspicion in the connected money laundering and drug trafficking cases with Lázaro Báez as the main defendant, was suspended by decision of the Federal Prosecutor's Office. The reason was not procedural but livestock-related: the property is home to some 6,000 sheep, which are in the middle of lambing season. According to the provincial force, during those tasks, animals with illegible brands and marks that did not belong to the property were identified. However, the Prosecution Unit leading the investigation decided to halt the work for 30 days. The operation is part of the multiple raids ordered in Buenos Aires, Santa Cruz, and several ranches. In the case of the latter, it was the officers of the Río Gallegos Rural Operations Division who assisted the Argentine Naval Prefecture in the herding and control of cattle, horses, and sheep. "The decision seeks to preserve animal welfare and avoid stress situations that could compromise gestation; when the herding is done, the sheep start giving birth and the lambs cannot keep up with them, so it was suspended for 30 days," official sources confirmed to LA NACION. Alquinta Estate of Lázaro Báez, Santa Cruz. Those who operated there are either in prison or have left. This Sunday, while the investigators were at the ranch, a laborer showed up claiming to have been hired by Claudia Insaurralde, Báez's partner, who was arrested last Monday at Ezeiza airport. The Alquinta ranch, spanning 51,000 hectares, located on the north bank of the Gallegos River and 90 kilometers from the provincial capital, was Báez's favorite and the one he visited most. It had already been raided in 2016, by order of prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, when it was valued at US$6 million. Sources with access to the case explained that the activity will resume in 30 days in order to carry out the inspection without putting the livestock at risk and to determine how many animals there are and where they came from. In the audio recordings revealed by the judicial investigation, one of the defendants referred to the keys to the Alquinta ranch. Lázaro Báez, in an ambulance transferArchiveThe investigators maintain the theory that the gang operated at the ranch as part of an organization dedicated to laundering assets through a flow estimated at 390,880,000 million in recent months alone. And that the entire operation was controlled by Báez from Federal Penitentiary Complex I of Ezeiza, where he is serving a unified sentence of 15 years for other cases. This emerges from sources linked to the investigation by the Río Gallegos Prosecution Unit, headed by federal prosecutor Julio Zárate, and the Economic Criminality and Money Laundering Prosecution Office (Procelac), represented by assistant prosecutor Jorge Rodríguez Ponte. "We are facing a stable organization, with a distribution of roles, that operates on assets of enormous magnitude," Zárate stated at the indictment hearing. Raid at the Alquinta Estate, Santa Cruz. The investigation against Báez originated from the telephone interceptions ordered within the framework of the investigation of a narco-criminal organization. Regarding this organization, the prosecutor's office attributed to its nine members the transportation of cocaine by truck and its distribution through a car wash where the deliveries of the material took place. The prosecutor's office pointed out that the laundering of assets from this activity took place through bank accounts and assets registered in the names of third parties to circulate funds of illicit origin and integrate them into the legal circuit. According to the prosecution's hypothesis, Báez's circle not only removed assets from judicial control—including properties already registered in the name of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation—but also used the leaders of the narco organization to move funds and assets. "The uncle"The investigators maintain that Báez issued directives from a line registered in the name of the Federal Penitentiary Service. In one of the wiretaps, he referred to himself as "the owner of the story." His circle called him "Antonio" or "the Uncle." In another conversation, presented at the hearing, he gave instructions about who should administer the La Entrerriana ranch and claimed that he was going to "supervise both sides." The link between the two cases is Cristian Ibáñez, whom the prosecutor's office describes as Báez's "de facto operator and territorial administrator" and as one of the leaders of the narco gang. Federal Guarantees Judge Claudio Marcelo Vázquez declared the legality of 12 arrests and converted them into pretrial detention, including Báez's. He set coercive measures for four other defendants and established two years as the maximum time limit for the investigations, as requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office. By Mariela Arias