Overview
- Federal Judge Carlos Vera Barros imposed at least 180 days of preventive detention after Bilbao was formally charged on Thursday.
- Bilbao was captured Tuesday in Pavón, Exaltación de la Cruz, following a high‑speed chase from a Route 8 toll, with 956 kilos of cocaine in his pickup.
- Investigators detected irregular air transits pointing to a field in Maguire suspected as a clandestine landing site, consistent with flights bringing cocaine from Bolivia.
- A crashed aircraft near Arequito carried about 60 kilos packaged like those seized from Bilbao, which investigators link to the same logistics circuit.
- Subsequent raids in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe led to three more arrests, vehicle and document seizures, and 60 marijuana plants, as PROCELAC probes alleged laundering through bars, a theater, a taxi fleet and a biodiesel company connected to the network; the case ties to a 2024 air‑smuggling file in which a pilot was sentenced to seven years and two months.