Hot shot for the Messi family. During the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Rosario, in the north of Argentina, shots were fired at 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 curtain of a supermarket, which was closed at the time. 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., 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 kilometers 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.
“What they’re looking for here is repercussion, it’s very treacherous,” said Pablo Javkin. “What news 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 told Cadena 3 television that the message was “not a threat”, but an act intended “to attract attention”.
The prosecutor handling the case, Federico Rebola, said there was “no known history of threats” against the Roccuzzo family. “We are concerned, this has a huge impact,” Rebola told reporters. “We have (CCTV) footage, and we are looking for other cameras. Everything we have at the moment is very preliminary. »
Provincial Security Minister Caudio Brilloni assured that at this stage “no firm hypothesis” was favored. The scientific police proceeded early in the morning to on-site readings, while the manuscript cardboard and the casings were sent for analysis.
Hometown of Lionel Messi, Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city and 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. The authorities regularly transfer responsibility for the means committed and the involvement of the security forces to combat the scourge, between the centrist mayor of the city, the current left-wing governor and the center-left national government.
After a meeting this week of the joint command of the three security forces (municipal, provincial, national), the provincial minister Claudio Brilloni said he had “urged the federal forces to have more collaboration, commitment and greater great turnout” to prevent violence and crime in Rosario.
The reactions were quick to come from the right-wing opposition camp: two declared pre-candidates for the October presidential election called for a frontal fight against drug trafficking in Rosario, with the support of the gendarmerie (a military force dependent on the Ministry of the Interior) or the army.
“Front and without quarter”, launched Patricia Bullrich, a former interior minister, while the mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Larreta, promised a government which “takes back the streets”.
“The situation is complex in Rosario […] the narcos have won,” said National Security Minister Anibal Fernandez. “But this problem has been going on for twenty years and cannot be solved in twenty minutes,” he added, recalling that more than 2,000 procedures in 2022 had resulted in 2,077 detentions in Rosario.
