Terrifying revelations from narcoaudios leaked from intelligence reports to La Nación Investiga indicate a rottenness in the National Anti-drug Secretariat (Senad), impossible to continue covering. When, with the series of recordings released these days, we might have thought that we had already heard everything, especially with the explosive audio about a “boss with the last name Amarilla” who supposedly asked for US$50,000 to avoid affecting the drug business of a target, It turns out that corrupt agents were in charge of telling drug traffickers who were the informants who passed on their data.
Within the framework of the Chase operation, the Sensitive Intelligence Unit (SIU) of the Senad intercepted communications from alleged elements belonging to the organization that, according to anti-drug agents, was led by former military officer Jorge Daniel Zorrilla Vera. This alleged drug lord was captured after a series of raids carried out on August 1, 2018 in the city of Salto del Guairá, department of Canindeyú.
In the call recording, you can hear how the drug traffickers were aware of the investigations, who the informants were, and even talk about revenge. About who gave the information, he mentions that supposedly a head of the same secretariat betrayed the informant.
The first man (H1) who speaks in the intercepted communication informs the second man (H2) of the following: “I saw that the boy who is Dani’s secretary was at your house, and that boy is not trustworthy, that is the that gives the clue from here to our theme”.
Next, he informs him that the night before he spoke with the boss and told him everything. When H2 asks him which of the bosses he spoke with, H1 replies: “The one in front of the hospital, because he internalized everything.”
It is important to point out that until a few months ago the headquarters of the Regional Office of the Senad in Salto del Guairá was located in front of the regional hospital of the city. At that time, the head of said unit was special agent Abelino Valdez Ruiz, one of the “wizards” of the Senad’s finances, a trusted man of the anti-drug minister, Zully Rolón, who served as Director of Operations, but resigned. in charge after the uncovering of saved audios and the millions amassed with modest income.
The alleged drug traffickers received detail by detail what the informant said and did, as revealed in the wiretaps, which is why some corrupt agents who have access to classified and ultra-sensitive information can risk security or even life itself. of citizenship.
“This informant had been picked up and he went to show them,” H1 is heard saying. Then H1 adds: “Your deposit was the one that showed them,” he mentioned.
But not everything ended there, because H1 also knew that they were going to raid the warehouse, but they did not do it because the data was leaked and because not all the data they handled was accurate.
In the conversation they come to the conclusion that the anti-drugs used “Dani’s secretary” because they had supposedly already arrested him, but then they released him again. But already annoyed by the situation, H2 remarks that action must be taken on the matter.
“For something just later they released this boy again, because they had already arrested him but then they just released him again, and on Monday he stayed in (inaudible area) to do his subject, but we are going to solve it his problem to this son of a bitch”, is heard in the conversation of the alleged drug traffickers, audio that was reproduced during the judicial process of the Chase operation.
As if affirming, H1 mentions that they now know everything that is happening, to which H2 adds: “We don’t have to let these things go”, about how people filter movements of their organization to the Senad. Finally, he tells her that “you just have to do things calmly.”
In this way, it is denoted that corrupt special agents put citizen security at risk because ratting out an organized crime informant could even represent a threat to his life.
An important element to point out is that H1 and H2 are precisely the people who were recorded by the Sensitive Intelligence Unit of the Senad talking about a request for a US$50,000 bribe by the “chief with the last name Amarilla.” During the oral and public trial, the analyst Felipe Jara declared before the Sentencing Court that this situation of request for bribery and all the details was reported to the former head of SIU/Senad Cristian Amarilla.
The call talks about how anti-drug chiefs squeezed drug traffickers for significant amounts, the analyst indicated that they ended up not giving follow-up and importance to the matter.
“At the moment it is very important. As more audios enter or it is not possible to confirm what is expressed in that audio, the importance decreases (…), it cannot be given continuity because they do not provide more information about the fact immediately, ”Jara said before the Court.
After the raids on August 1, then-minister Hugo Vera ordered the dismantling of the Senad base in Salto del Guairá and ordered the indictment of Abelino Valdez and his entire team, but when Arnaldo Giuzzio arrived at the secretariat, the investigations they made no progress and the suspects were promoted to key positions.
SIU agent Carlos Chamorro Portillo, who increased his assets by 700%, declared a “political, social and labor” war in Senad. His friend Abelino Valdez made his position available.
The investigation that began to uncover the series of irregularities within the Senad began with the case of Carlos Chamorro Portillo, the “finance wizard” agent who until recently served in the Sensitive Intelligence Unit (SIU) as well as than his wife, Natalia Berenicce Bareiro. The couple increased their assets by 700% compared to those recorded in their first affidavits of assets and income. This rise that they experienced quickly was in the last 4 years.
In a leaked chat, Chamorro, in a defiant tone, declared a “political, social and labor” war within the secretariat and also revealed that his superiors were aware of the 2023 Toyota Hilux he bought.
He commented that the “leader” of the SIU Daniel Fernández knew of his goal of acquiring a US$65,000 vehicle, but he only recommended that he not make the purchase because it could generate an “earthquake” and he turned a blind eye to the idea that an agent who until July 2022 received a salary that did not reach G. 7 million makes a million-dollar transaction.
Chamorro was replaced by Minister Zully Rolón, and now he became the right hand of Vice Minister Esteban Caselli.
While his close friend Abelino Valdez Ruiz went from declaring G. 7 million in assets to manifesting large real estate and offering luxurious parties such as his daughter’s fifteenth birthday, which he held in Las Takuaras in the midst of the strong economic crisis generated by the pandemic. of covid-19. It had an equity increase of 10.769%.
Finally, one of the important pieces of information about Valdez is that he declares properties for prices that are undervalued, such as land acquired in Minga Guazú for G. 5 million, or in the case of a land in Capiatá that Chamorro swore to own in December 2015 and declared for a value of G. 40 million, but last August Valdez also consigned the same land as his property, but indicates that he acquired it for G. 8 million. The Comptroller ordered a correspondence exam for both.
SIU analyst Berenicce Bareiro did not record in her final report on the Aguará operation that drug traffickers were going to set up a factory at the request of the Senad Office in Salto, where Abelino Valdez, a friend of her husband Carlos Chamorro, worked.
Between 2020 and 2021, the oral and public trial of the Aguará – Chase operation took place, which dismantled the drug organization that Jorge Zorrilla allegedly led, it was evidenced that two sequences that compromised anti-drug agents from the Salto del Guairá Regional Office did not They were on the final report disc made by the listening analyst Natalia Berenicce Bareiro.
When defense lawyers requested the reproduction of the sequences 1008077620 and 1008079010, the woman said that it was not on the disk of the conclusive report sent, first to her then head of SIU Cristian Amarilla, and then to the courts.
In one of the narco-audios of the Aguará case, to which La Nación Investiga had access, one of the interlocutors is heard saying that those from the Senad asked to intervene an “abandoned factory” that would be armed by traffickers in an indigenous colony .
Surprisingly, in those months the head of the Salto del Guairá Regional Office who was going to show off the seizure was special agent Abelino Valdez Ruiz, a close friend of Chamorro and Bareiro.
On August 1, 2018, the members of the Zorrilla cartel were arrested, and immediately former minister Hugo Vera dismantled the Salto del Guairá office and ordered the indictment of Valdez and all his subordinates for allegations of alleged bribe collection.
However, with Arnaldo Giuzzio at the head of the Senad (he took office as minister on August 15, 2018) he did not deepen the investigation into the suspicions that were held towards special agents of the Salto del Guairá Regional Office, who were wiretapped. accused of designing a false-positive operation in collusion with members of organized crime.
