Ousting of police chief highlights Argentina's vulnerability to organized crime
鈥� researches, analyzes, and investigates organized crime in the Americas. Find all of Geoffrey Ramsey's
Evidence of police corruption in northern Argentina illustrates how vulnerable the country is to organized crime, as domestic demand for cocaine rises and the country emerges as a regional trafficking hub, with one of 's biggest capos captured there this week.
The case of Hugo Tognoli, former police commissioner of the northern Santa Fe province, provides a useful insight into the institutional crisis currently faced by the Argentine police. Mr. Tognoli was accused of receiving kickbacks from drug trafficking organizations based in Santa Fe. He resigned on Oct. 19, and briefly went missing before turning himself in to authorities on Oct. 21. Tognoli denies the charges against him.
RELATED: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz!
Public prosecutors accuse Tognoli of organizing a scheme with local drug trafficking networks in which he took in exchange for allowing them to operate in his area. The evidence against the police commissioner suggests that such arrangements were a hallmark of his leadership style. Investigators claim to have a record of a text message exchange between one of Tognoli鈥檚 subordinates and a brothel owner, in which the latter asked how much the commissioner would charge him to sell cocaine. 鈥�30,000 [pesos a month, or about $6,300] directly to Tognoli,鈥� was the response.
As La Nacion notes, the arrest of Tognoli is not the only example of corruption in Santa Fe. The Buenos Aires-based daily claims that the province is a , with hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits moving through Rosario, its largest city. Police collusion with illicit activity is widespread. Law enforcement sources consulted by La Nacion described an among police in Rosario, with lower level officers 鈥� increasingly dissatisfied with their cut of drug profits 鈥� charging traffickers of their own accord to operate in several neighborhoods in the city.
InSight Crime Analysis
in Argentina, which has long been an issue, has taken on greater importance in light of the country鈥檚 emergence as a hub in the regional cocaine trade. Authorities are seeing a sharp rise in drug seizures, corresponding to a surge in demand for cocaine in the country. 聽With cocaine consumption 鈥� particularly of a kind of crack cocaine known as 鈥減aco鈥� 鈥� taking off in Argentina, it has become the of the drug in Latin America after Brazil, accounting for an estimated 25 percent of cocaine use in the region.
In addition to serving as a major market for cocaine, the country is increasingly used as a transit point for trafficking networks. Argentina serves as a key link to both and the European cocaine market, which has seen an 聽in recent years.
This surge in cocaine traffic has accompanied growing concern among officials over the presence of powerful transnational criminal organizations in the country. The 鈥檚 Joaquin "" Guzman was rumored to have in mid-2011, and a former lieutenant of Colombian drug kingpin Daniel "" Barrera was while hiding out in Buenos Aires.
With police corruption rampant in Argentina, the country may be ill-prepared for the rise of powerful drug trafficking organizations. President Cristina Fernandez [de Kirchner] created a new security ministry in 2010, partly out of a wish to address the problem, appointing the reform-minded Nilda Garre at its head. Ms. Garre has proven to be an innovative figure, overseeing a and promising to at all levels. Still, as the Tognoli case illustrates, the Argentine government will be hard pressed to tackle corruption without addressing both the culture of abuse and the financial incentives that drive police officials to accept money from criminals.
The country is also used as a hide-out for Colombian traffickers, with boss聽Henry de Jesus Lopez, alias ",鈥� captured in a Buenos Aires supermarket this week.
RELATED: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz!
鈥� is a writer for Insight 鈥� Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research .
