Family of footballer Ángel Di María threatened in Rosario

Relatives of national team star footballer Ángel Di María have been threatened by a suspected gang linked to drug-trafficking, judicial sources in Rosario have revealed.

Di María, 36, is one of Argentina’s most popular stars, but in the early hours of Monday morning an intimidating message was thrown to the door of the gated community where several members of his family, including his mother, currently live.

The star, who plies his trade in Europe with Portuguese side Benfica, often stays at the gated community when he visits Argentina too.

The threatening note, the text of which was not disclosed by local authorities, was wrapped in a black plastic bag and was thrown at around 2.30am local time from a car at the entrance to the Funes Hill Miraflores gated community of Miraflores, located in Funes, 20 kilometres west of Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe.

"Di María himself lives there," a spokesman for the local Public Prosecutor's Office told the AFP news agency, adding that the investigation is being carried out by "the crime unit of the Investigative Police" of Rosario.

"Fingerprints have been collected, security cameras have been examined and testimonies have been taken,” said the spokesperson.

View of the Funes Hill Miraflores gated community in Santa Fe where footballer Ángel Di María and his family usually stays when he visits Argentina, and where other family members, including his mother, live, pictured on January 2, 2022.

A source from the Santa Fe Province Security Ministry added that the note was thrown "from a grey car," according to images from surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood.

"The content of the threat will not be released, because it would be playing into the hands of these criminal organisations that seek to generate public commotion," the source added.

However, local press reports revealed that the threat carried the words "Familia Di María" and the note said "Neither [Maximiliano] Pullaro is going to save you", in reference to the governor of the province who has attempted to crack down on drug-related violence in the region.

The working hypothesis of the criminal investigation is that the threat to the Di María family is intended to cause a "commotion" in the city. A similar incident happened a year ago when a shop owned by the in-laws of national team captain Lionel Messi was shot at in Rosario.

Suspected drug gangs also left a written threat at a garage on Mondays where public transport buses are kept overnight, leading to a partial suspension of the service.

Rosario, a city of 1.3 million inhabitants that lies 300 kilometres to the north of Argentina’s capital, was virtually paralysed a fortnight ago by a lack of transport, the suspension of classes at schools and shuttered shops after four homicides that the local government attributed to criminal gangs whose leaders are jailed.

– TIMES/AFP