Live death exposes extreme violence and generates political dispute in Argentina

The bodies were located in garbage bags, buried in the courtyard of a house in the city of Florencio Varela, southern the Greater Buenos Aires, 30 kilometers from which they were last seen last Friday in La Matanza district, where they lived. The district is more populous and most vulnerable in the province of Buenos Aires.

The brutal crime happened at dawn on Saturday and was broadcast live on a social network to about 45 people, according to local authorities. The biggest suspect is a drug trafficking leader known as “Julito” or “Little J”, 23. He is on the run. At the crime scene, four people (two men and two women) were caught by police and detained cleaning the scene of the murder. A fifth suspect was later arrested.

The crime was transmitted to a closed group on Instagram, according to the Minister of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires, Javier Alonso. During the broadcast, one of the killers would have said, “This happens to those who steal my drugs.” The statement was released by the TN channel.

The provincial government states that a transnational drug trafficking organization is involved in the crime and that the motivation could be revenge. According to the minister, the execution wanted to intimidate and build an image of power around the leader of the organization.

One hypotheses is that the girls fell into an ambush. They believed they would go to an event and were kidnapped to be tortured and killed. “They believed they would attend an event to which they had been invited. They go their own will with someone who gained their trust,” Alonso told a press conference.

The minister said that before the crime, a group of men fell a well in the courtyard of the house where the murders occurred.