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Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is being successful

Cocaine exports to Europe have actually been obstructed, she states

Murders in Rosario hub lowest in a minimum of a decade

By Lucinda Elliott

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, is on an objective to stamp out drug gangs in the South American country that have actually driven increasing violence and resulted in a spike in cocaine shipments to Europe. She says she is prospering.

Argentina has actually grown in significance as a transit hub for cocaine as production from Peru and Bolivia has streamed down crucial waterways and out through river ports such as that of Rosario, Lionel Messi's home town. Gang-related murders increased in tandem.

Bullrich, higgledy-piggledy.xyz in a with worldwide media, told Reuters the year-old government of libertarian President Javier Milei was separating the gangs and blocking deliveries from making their method to end markets, consisting of to Europe, where the cocaine market has actually broadened in recent years.

"We have actually had record cocaine seizures which's generated terrific respect for us regionally and likewise in Europe, since (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was detected in Europe," she said at her office in Buenos Aires, adding that "naturally there may be some deliveries that were undetected."

The security ministry validated that cocaine was not found in any deliveries that crossed the South Atlantic from Argentina to a significant European port in 2024. Reuters was not able to independently verify that.

Once a competitor to Milei as the governmental prospect for the main conservative bloc, Bullrich is now leading the crackdown on criminal offense, tightening borders with Brazil and Bolivia, privatizing some jails and using expert system to track gangs.

In Rosario, according to regional government figures, murders dropped to 90 last year - the least expensive in a minimum of the last years and down from almost 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, the year before Milei and Bullrich took office.

"We decided to hit hard against the gangs," Bullrich said, adding that cooperation between the nationwide and regional governments in Rosario had actually been a crucial aspect, along with the courts taking a tougher line. The government has actually also targeted drug kingpins already behind bars.

"We took away the power that the drug managers had in the jails, who used the jails to keep their drug criminal offense rings going. We separated them," she said.

Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence specialist and president of local think tank CRIES, credited a focus on event intelligence with aiding the criminal offense decrease.

"There was a collective security effort by the national government to prioritize Rosario, with a focus on criminal intelligence rather than simply having more authorities on the streets, which is a a lot more practical strategy," he said.

Bullrich has actually sent an expense to congress to establish a new anti-mafia law, comparable to U.S. RICO legislation, to remove criminal networks, and said she has actually likewise gained from security forces in Britain and Italy.

Last year, she hosted El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, and visited his mega-prison that holds tens of thousands of gang members in difficult conditions that have drawn praise from hardline law-and-order political leaders and criticism from rights groups. Photos have actually revealed rows of tattooed and topless prisoners kneeling with their hands behind the heads.

"In our case, our system has actually been a bit, let's say, less harsh. But when we have to be difficult, we are difficult," said Bullrich.

TOUGHER BORDERS

Bullrich informed Reuters she was enhancing border controls to stop drug gangs, planning sees to cocaine-growing locations in Peru, and improving cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Bullrich said the border with Bolivia was being enhanced, consisting of by developing a short stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is likewise doing more monitoring of entry points with Brazil where there had been a "absence of control in the last few years," she said.

"We're going to begin a program, a strategy, we're taking soldiers to the border location with Brazil," she said.

Authorities in Bolivia and Brazil did not right away react to a request for remark. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, last week welcomed the concept of strengthening border security in a response to the procedures.

Bullrich, forum.batman.gainedge.org a political veteran who has brought Milei key center-ground assistance, said she had actually been won over to the libertarian's more comprehensive economic and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have divided Argentines but assisted support the nation.

The 2 are previous competitors. During the election race, Milei labeled her a leftist "bomb-thrower" - a referral to her time with the youth wing of the Peronist motion - to which Bullrich had shot back that the previous economic pundit was mentally unstable.

Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and she and her bloc were assisting him as he seeks to gain seats in legislative mid-term elections set for later on this year.

"We're more libertarian than conservative now," she said.

(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott. Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Daniel Ramos in La Paz; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O'Brien)