Anonymous tip, drones, and an alarm: How the gang planning to rob two banks was caught

An anonymous tip initiated a detailed investigation that ultimately thwarted a criminal plan to rob two banks in Argentina. The investigation involved surveillance, the use of drones, and a fortuitous alarm activation, leading to the apprehension of 12 individuals suspected of being part of a "boqueteros" gang.

The targeted banks were located in Baradero and the central area of Morón, in the western suburbs of Buenos Aires. Federal Judge Jorge Rodríguez of Morón has processed the 12 suspects, who were caught by the Buenos Aires Provincial Police and the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) in Baradero as they were about to execute their plan at a branch of Banco Provincia.

Judicial sources confirmed that the evidence, including documentary, testimonial, and expert proof, sufficiently supports the charges. The judge's 55-page resolution detailed the criminal events, finding no "fissures" in the evidence. The gang specialized in breaking through bank walls to gain access to vaults.

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The materiality of the facts described is accredited by documentary, testimonial and expert evidence. As can be seen, the referred antisocial events are duly accredited by the solid evidentiary structure analyzed, which presents no fissures that could cause it to lose strength, so that the injustices in their factual aspect have been duly reflected in what concerns their occurrences.

One of the processed suspects is Carlos Daniel Maidana, 59, a former PFA member who was dismissed in 1995. Maidana allegedly became an informant for Adrián Baeta, a Buenos Aires police sergeant. Baeta was reportedly friends with Diego Guastini, known as "Dolarín," a financial mastermind behind powerful drug trafficking rings who was assassinated in 2019. Guastini had provided information to the justice system about organizations for which he laundered money or managed drug payment logistics.

Maidana has been processed with preventive detention, considered a co-perpetrator of attempted aggravated robbery and illegal possession of a war weapon. The judge has frozen his assets up to 30 million pesos. The initial anonymous tip, received via email by the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires, detailed an organization planning bank robberies using the "boqueteros" method, specifically targeting branches of Banco de la Nación Argentina in Morón and Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Baradero.

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The anonymous tip received via email to the Superintendence of Investigations of Complex Crimes and Organized Crime of the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires reported the existence of a criminal organization dedicated to planning bank robberies using the 'boqueteros' modality, being that in this case they would commit these illicit acts in the Morón branches of Banco de la Nación Argentina and/or in the Baradero branch of Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.