The Revealing Chats of Police Officers Accused of Stealing 10 Kilos of Cocaine They Were Supposed to Burn

“Go, champion,” Gastón Villalba wrote in a WhatsApp group after police officers sent a photograph of themselves transporting part of a cocaine shipment. Prosecutors say the message referred to a plan to remove some of the drugs before they were burned and sell them later.

The exchange surfaced in an investigation by the Complex Cases Investigation and Litigation Unit of the Resistencia Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors filed charges on Tuesday seeking to send eight Chaco provincial police officers to oral trial over the alleged theft of nearly 10 kilograms of cocaine during an official drug-incineration operation.

According to prosecutors Patricio Sabadini and Ruth Hilgenberg, the plan was organized by Commissioner Rubén Alegre, who led the operation. The officers belonged to the Metropolitan Operations Division, part of the Chaco police department responsible for problematic drug use cases. The accusation says five officers removed 9.490 kilograms of cocaine from police custody with the intention of selling it: First Sergeant Gustavo Quizama, Deputy Commissioner Franco Ramírez, First Sergeant Juan Nicolás Almirón Núñez, Corporal Néstor Ariel Urne Canteros and Sergeant Gustavo Jesús Acosta.

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Go, champion.

Prosecutors also accuse Villalba and Francisco García of taking part, even though they were not at the site when the material was seized. Villalba allegedly helped prepare plaster “bricks” to replace the cocaine packages, while García was allegedly responsible for putting the stolen drugs on the market.

The incineration took place on December 18 at the Chaco police force’s shooting range, in the presence of Federal Court No. 2 Judge Ricardo Mianovich and court secretary Martín Innocente. The secretary reportedly noticed irregular movements as officers moved the seized substance from a police vehicle to the incineration pit. He found eight cocaine packages hidden under the driver’s and passenger’s seats, and another in Núñez’s backpack. Urne Canteros’s backpack contained a package with an apparent plaster brick designed to look like cocaine. Prosecutors said the officers had placed their backpacks and personal belongings inside the official vehicle to exchange the packages and later divide the illegal proceeds.

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They had placed their backpacks and personal belongings inside the vehicle, with the clear intention of exchanging the bricks and later dividing the illegal proceeds.