The brutal murder of Brenda del Castillo (20), Morena Verdi (20) and Lara Gutiérrez (15) added a new chapter with the landing of the prosecutor Adrián Arribas, specialist in homicides and genre of the UFI of La Matanza. His arrival marks a turn in the investigation, after the displacement of Gastón Duplaá, questioned by the delay in the first steps and the lack of confidence of the relatives of the victims. “They started with their left foot,” denounced the grandfather of Brenda and Morena, reflecting the anger and helpless climate.
Arribas accepted the file and ordered to form a work table with the DDI of La Matanza, with a look set at key forensic experts and in the coordination of intelligence tasks. The new prosecutor seeks to give the cause a firm and professional course, with the endorsement of his trajectory in complex crimes and under the pressure that society demands rapid results. The cover, which includes homicide qualified by alevosía, cruelty, premeditated contest and gender violence, places it in front of a maximum severity file: if the defendants are found guilty, the conviction will be perpetual prison.
Arribas challenge is not just judicial. The cause exposes the narco violence in the conurbano: four detainees who refused to declare, a key fugitive known as “small J”, the hypothesis of a revenge linked to drug trafficking and the brutality of a crime broadcast live on Instagram to 45 people. Everything configures a scenario where the power of the bands challenges the State.
The accused – Miguel Ángel Villanueva Silva, Magalí Celeste González Guerrero, Daniela Iara Ibarra and Maximiliano Andrés Parra – will continue with preventive detention while Arribas concentrates efforts to locate the fugitive leader and shield the evidence that will hold the accusation.
With a research history that combines gender technique and perspective, Arribas assumes a cause that can mark his career. It must show speed, firmness and sensitivity to avoid procedural cracks and, at the same time, send a clear message: that justice can impose limits even in territories dominated by the narco.
