Argentine police arrested two of those allegedly involved in the recent threats against the family of Benfica footballer Ángel Di María, in the city of Funes, province of Santa Fé, judicial sources announced today.
“The perpetrators of the incident were arrested. The two people who were in the car were arrested, following a joint operation with the Federal Public Ministry, with the participation of the Federal Police and the Intelligence Service”, Justice official Pablo Socca told the press.
Previously, Argentina’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, had reported the arrests on social media.
“Those responsible for the threats and shootings against Ángel Di María and his family have been arrested. Pablo Acotto, investigated for drug trafficking, confessed, in telephone taps, to being the perpetrator, and Sara Belén Gutiérrez and Gabriel Ismael Pastore, accomplices, were arrested by the PFA and by the Santa Fé Police through the PDI, when they were thinking about fleeing their home. Excellent work by federal prosecutor Javier Arzubi and Pablo Socca, from MPA Santa Fé, which allowed us to obtain information about the author of the threats. We pursued mafias, drug traffickers and extortions to bring security to the people of Rosario and all Argentines”, wrote Patricia Bullrich.
According to reports, the agents detained the two suspects in a temporary rental apartment, who were in the car from which the threat to Di María’s family was made, in the early hours of Monday, and a firearm was seized. The Argentine press, at the time, spoke of shots fired near the player’s family home.
“We have evidence collected through surveillance cameras in the private neighborhood where the family lives, with the car used by the two individuals and the path they took, and with the ownership of the vehicle”, explained Socca.
Furthermore, the Public Ministry reported that this vehicle had already been mentioned in investigations that the Federal Court was carrying out, which made it possible to determine which people and gangs were behind the threats.
The Prosecutor stated that it remains to be determined the motivation of the perpetrators and whether this incident is related to other intimidations that have occurred in the province in recent weeks against taxi drivers or bus drivers.
The governor of the province of Santa Fé, Maximiliano Pullaro, who has suffered similar threats on several occasions, echoed the arrest of the two suspects on his Instagram profile, publishing the names of those involved in the incident.
“Pablo Acotto, investigated for drug trafficking, confessed, in wiretaps, to being the perpetrator, and Sara Belén Gutiérrez and Gabriel Ismael Pastore, accomplices, were arrested by the PFA and the Santa Fe Police through the PDI, when they planned to escape their home”, he commented in the publication, in which an image of one of the detainees is shown.
The event occurred in the urbanization near Rosário, Di María’s hometown, at around 2:30 am (5:30 am in Lisbon) on Monday, when a vehicle threw a threatening message at the door of the house where Di María’s family members were. Benfica player.
At the time of the events, Di María was focused on the Argentine national team to play two private games in the United States, in preparation for the Copa América, which the ‘albiceleste’ won, against El Salvador (3-0) and Costa Rica (3-1).
Di María, aged 36, ends his contract with Benfica at the end of this season, and has already expressed his desire to return to Rosário Central, the club where he started his career, before heading to Europe, where, in addition to the ‘reds’, he represented Real Madrid, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
*Updated article