Overview
- Investigators led by prosecutor Mariano Moyano traced a coordinated fraud operation to inmates in Unidad Penal N°1 (Olmos) and units in Batán after telecom forensics linked outgoing calls from prison lines.
- Perito reports show prisoners made about 10,341 extortion attempts between June and October by calling targets nationwide, with two concentrated waves of roughly 5,058 and 5,283 calls.
- Call recordings used in the case show callers posing as police officers, bank officials or distressed relatives and using a false ‘subcomisario Gutiérrez’ persona to pressure older adults into transfers or hosting visitors who then robbed homes.
- Simultaneous raids carried out Monday in Olmos and Batán led to arrests and formal imputations, seizure of multiple cellphones, SIM troqueles and notebooks, and ongoing forensic analysis of the seized material.
- The probe links the phone scams to violent home invasions and has pushed Moyano to request an urgent ban on inmate mobile phones, a move that could prompt tighter prison controls and affect how future cases are investigated and prevented.