Shots were fired overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in Rosario, in northern Argentina, a business belonging to Lionel Messi’s in-laws, with a seemingly threatening although enigmatic message, mentioning the captain of the Albiceleste. According to the city police, 14 bullet holes were identified on the metal shutter of a supermarket, closed at the time of the events. Casings were recovered from the ground, as well as a cardboard sign with a handwritten inscription: “Messi we are waiting for you, Javkin is a narco, he will not take care of you”.
A witness confirmed seeing two men on a motorbike shortly before 3 a.m. (local time), one of them getting off to shoot and throw the box before fleeing. No one was hurt. Pablo Javkin, the mayor of Rosario, a city located 320 km northwest of Buenos Aires, confirmed to the press that the business belonged to the Roccuzzo family, in-laws of Lionel Messi, married to Antonela Roccuzzo, with whom he has three children.
The most dangerous city in the country
“What they’re looking for here is repercussion, it’s very treacherous,” said Pablo Javkin. “What information goes viral faster than an attack on Messi? (…) It’s very easy for any band to do that”. The deputy head of a provincial police unit, Ivan Gonzalez, also estimated on Cadena 3 television that the message was “not a threat”, but an act intended “to attract attention”.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Federico Rebola, indicated that there was “no known history of threats” against the Roccuzzo family. “We are concerned, this has a huge repercussion”, nevertheless estimated Mr. Rebola to the press. “We have (CCTV) footage, and we are looking for other cameras. Everything we have at the moment is very preliminary”.
Hometown of Lionel Messi, Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city and a major river port on the Parana, has become a hotspot for drug trafficking in recent years and, little by little, the most dangerous city in the country, with 287 homicides in 2022 .