Founder of ‘Los Monos’ drug gang arrested

The founder of the ‘Los Monos’ drug-trafficking gang, Máximo Ariel ‘El Viejo’ Cantero, was arrested in the small hours of Wednesday morning.

Cantero was detained in the framework of an investigation into gunfire attacks and extortions committed in Rosario last year, court and police sources reported.

The father of the current leader of Los Monos, 33-year-old Ariel ‘Guille’ Cantero, who is currently behind bars, was arrested as part of an illicit organisation investigation carried out by Prosecutors Valeria Haurigot and Franco Carbone.

The arrest was one of 30 court-ordered raids in different Rosario addresses, the sources told the Télam state news agency.

Prosecutors requested the arrest of 21 people in total, among them Cantero Snr, 58, who was found at his flat in the Avellaneda 4500 block of southern Rosario.

The Los Monos founder is accused of belonging to an illicit association dedicated to shooting up schools and service stations in Rosario, with the aim of scaring them into agreeing to extortion.

Cantero Snr had been released last May after serving a six-year prison sentence imposed on him in a 2018 trial with most of the gang in the dock. His son was sentenced to 25 years for homicide.

The latter later received further sentences topping 100 years in prison in federal trials and is being held at the Federal Penitentiary Complex in Marcos Paz (Buenos Aires Province).

The raids beginning in the small hours of Wednesday were being continued by provincial and federal forces, the spokespersons added.

— TIMES/NA/TÉLAM