Money Laundering Case Against Pablo Escobar's Son & Widow is Suspended in Argentina

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

After six years of investigation, the Justice decided to suspend the trial against the widow and son of Pablo Escobar Garivia.

According to a ruling by the judges that make up the Federal Oral Court No. 2, the same one that sentenced Cristina Fernández de Kirchner three weeks ago, the case must go back to the investigation stage because "the guarantee of defense of the accused" was affected.

Pablo Escobar's son, who changed his name to Sebastián Marroquín following his father's death. The money laundering case involves a former member of their rival Cali Cartel.

The accused are María Isabel Santos Caballero, widow of Pablo Escobar; Sebastián Marroquín, son of the drug lord; Colombian native financier José Piedrahita Bayron; businessman Mateo Corvo Dolcet and soccer player Mauricio “Chicho” Serna. In a letter delivered to the judge at the beginning of the trial, Escobar's widow and son reportedly said they knew Piedrahita as a cattle rancher and were unaware he was a drug trafficker. The pair has been investigated for money laundering before, but a federal tribunal in Buenos Aires closed the case in 2005.

The five are being investigated for laundering money that came from drug trafficking. The case began based on a report from the DEA in 2016. It is worth mentioning that Piedrahita Bayron is in prison in Colombia after confessing in the United States and in his country that he laundered almost $3 million from drug trafficking in Argentina.

José Piedrahita Bayron, who allied with the Cali Cartel, was convicted of bribing a US Homeland Security agent to get a drug trafficking indictment against him dismissed.

It was determined through the Justice that the widow and son of Pablo Escobar were intermediaries in real estate investments between Piedrahita Bayron and the businessman Mateo Corvo Dolcet. While the family involved in the drug lord assured that they had no knowledge of the past of the financier detained in Colombia, who had been related to drug trafficking. The soccer player is accused of selling properties in Argentina to Piedrahita Bayron, which was also described as a laundering effort according to Justice.

However, the defense lawyers presented numerous requests for annulment and the case reached the Criminal Cassation Chamber in Comodoro Py. After the change of jurisdiction was approved, it fell on the Federal Oral Court No. 2, which finally pushed the judicial process back to an earlier stage for granting a request from one of the defendants.

"The deprivation of the defenses to access the brief presented by Piedrahita Ceballos (the repentant drug trafficker) implied a severe impairment to the exercise of the right of defense in the trial of the accused," the resolution stated. Therefore, the cause was stopped and the investigation will be reviewed again in Comodoro Py.

Sources Mitre, Business Insider, DOJ