The Triple crime () took place in
General Rodríguez
General Rodríguez is a city in the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre
An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county ...
, Argentina, on August 13, 2008. It involves the torture and deaths of three pharmaceutical businessmen, Sebastián Forza, Damián Ferrón, and Leopoldo Bina, who had been reported
missing
Missing or The Missing may refer to:
Film
* ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young
* ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras about the 1973 coup in Chile
*, a Belgian film ...
on August 7, 2008, and were found dead the following August 13.
The event
Three pharmaceutical businessmen, Sebastián Forza, Damián Ferrón, and Leopoldo Bina, had been reported
missing
Missing or The Missing may refer to:
Film
* ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young
* ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras about the 1973 coup in Chile
*, a Belgian film ...
on August 7, 2008. They met at a supermarket in
Sarandí, Buenos Aires
Sarandí () is a city in the Avellaneda Partido of the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located to the south of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
The city has an area of and a population of 60,752 inhabitants (INDE ...
and were found dead in
General Rodríguez
General Rodríguez is a city in the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre
An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county ...
the following August 13. They had been shot and partially buried, and their corpses showed evidence of recent torture.
Forza's widow said the deaths were a
mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
message for other people, and that her husband had paid $250,000 for protection to a man known as "La Morsa" (). This is the pseudonym of a man who could not be identified, who, she claimed, she had heard was a man with a moustache.
She suspected he might be
Esteban Pérez Corradi, a creditor of Forza's, because her late husband feared him.
The investigations in the following days revealed that the three men had ties with narcotics trafficking cartels. The drugstore of José Luis Salerno, a former associate of Ferrón's, was closed. Forza and Ferrón had a lab in
Ingeniero Maschwitz
Ingeniero Maschwitz, known simply as Maschwitz, is a town in the Escobar Partido of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the urban conurbation of Greater Buenos Aires. This is the small town where International evangelist Luis Pal ...
that manufactured illegal drugs.
The import of
ephedrine
Ephedrine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant and sympathomimetic agent that is often used to prevent hypotension, low blood pressure during anesthesia. It has also been used for asthma, narcolepsy, and obesity but is not the preferred ...
was restricted a month later, limiting it only to the labs that prepare legal drugs that contain it. It was also discovered that Forza financed the political campaign of
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and former politician who served as the 56th president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice ...
during the
2007 general elections.
Cristian Lanatta, Martín Lanatta, Víctor Schilacci, and Marcelo Schilacci were detained and sentenced for the killings. Ibar Pérez Corradi remained at large for a longer time.
Journalist
Jorge Lanata
Jorge Ernesto Lanata (12 September 1960 – 30 December 2024) was an Argentine journalist and author. He founded the newspaper ''Página 12'' in 1987, and worked on several TV programs, newspapers, magazines and documentaries. He moved to the C ...
(unrelated to Cristian and Martín) interviewed Salerno and Martín Lanatta in 2015. They claimed that
Aníbal Fernández
Aníbal Domingo Fernández (born January 9, 1957) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, lawyer, and certified public accountant. Throughout his career, he has remained a close ally to the former Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina ...
(minister of Justice at the time) was "La Morsa", the mastermind of the crime. They claimed that Fernández ordered Forza, Ferrón, and Bina killed because they might have attempted to secure the illegal drug trade operation for themselves.
The house of Jorge Lanata was attacked with stones two days later, and several .38 caliber bullet casings were found after the attack.
In October 2020, claims about Aníbal Fernández implication were dismissed, revealing in court that "La Morza" was a media set up to involve
Aníbal Fernández
Aníbal Domingo Fernández (born January 9, 1957) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, lawyer, and certified public accountant. Throughout his career, he has remained a close ally to the former Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina ...
in the Triple crime.
Escape
Cristian Lanatta, Martín Lanatta, and Víctor Schilacci escaped from prison on December 27, 2015. They used a guard as hostage and fled in a prison employee's car. Three helicopters and 600 cops were deployed to locate them. The governor
María Eugenia Vidal
María Eugenia Vidal (born 8 September 1973) is an Argentine politician who served as Governor of the Buenos Aires Province, being the first woman in the office, and the first non-Peronist since 1987. A member of Republican Proposal (PRO), she ...
fired the leaders of the jailing system of the Buenos Aires province, who were suspected of having abetted the escape. The fugitives were reportedly seen in the San Juan Province, which could not be confirmed. They were found at Ranchos, near
Chascomús, and fired at the police. It was also denounced that they had visited relatives in Quilmes. There was a second shooting and escape from the police in San Carlos, Santa Fe province. The fugitives attacked a rancher and escaped in his truck, but the truck crashed in the road to the north. Martín Lanatta escaped on his own and was captured shortly afterwards. It was announced that the three fugitives had been captured, but that misinformation was later rectified. The other two fugitives were captured a few days later in a small Northern village.
Capture of Corradi
Ibar Pérez Corradi was captured in the Triple Border on June 9, 2016, with a new Paraguayan ID and with his fingerprints removed. The judges
Sebastián Casanello and
María Servini de Cubría
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
asked for his extradition: Casanello works on the triple crime case, and Servini de Cubría on a case of drugs trafficking. Corradi refused to be extradited, claiming he did not trust the Argentine judiciary, that his family was in Paraguay, and that his life would be at risk if he returned. As a result, the extradition request may take two months to be answered.
References
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General Rodríguez Partido
Murder in Argentina
Political scandals in Argentina
2008 in Argentina
2008 deaths
Prison escapes in South America
People murdered by organized crime
2008 murders in Argentina