Buenos Aires, March 18 (NA) – A gang accused of impersonating police officers to carry out aggravated robberies at various points in the northern area of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area has been dismantled following a series of simultaneous raids carried out in the districts of Tigre and Malvinas Argentinas, police and judicial sources reported this Wednesday. The operation was carried out within the framework of a case for aggravated robbery committed in a populated area and as a group, with the intervention of the UFI of Don Torcuato, led by prosecutor José Amallo, after an investigation that lasted two months. According to the official report, personnel from the Tigre EPDS and the GTO conducted undercover operations, analysis of municipal and private cameras, collection of testimonies, and various investigative measures that made it possible to identify the members of the organization, reconstruct their modus operandi, and detect the logistics they used to carry out the assaults. As a result of the procedures, Julio Esteban Baldes, 58, identified as the gang leader; Federico Mario Nahuel Baldes Gonzalez, 31; Ana Laura Umbidez, 30; Nicolás Giménez, 39; Gabriel Emiliano Gavilán Herrera, 28; and Luciano Matías Colayago, 33, who was undocumented, were arrested. Additionally, investigators seized a Volkswagen Fox presumably used in the incidents, bulletproof vest bags, cash, cell phones, caps, police uniforms, and other items of interest to the case. According to spokespeople, the organization acted in a coordinated manner and simulated belonging to a security force. To do this, its members used bulletproof vests and short and long firearms, with the aim of subduing victims and facilitating entry into homes and businesses. The investigation links the group to several incidents committed with the same method in the northern part of Greater Buenos Aires. These include a robbery that occurred on November 23, 2025, at the Madygraf printing press, in the jurisdiction of Garín, where the victim was Eduardo Ayala, 55; another episode recorded on January 15, 2026, in Tigre, with Mariluz Roxana Ballena Tarazona as the victim; an assault committed on February 19 in Don Torcuato, where the victim was Thiago Gabriel Alegre, 18; and a fourth case reported on February 20 in the San Pablo neighborhood of El Talar, where Gastón Alberto Martínez, 47, was the victim. For these episodes, the prosecutor's offices of Garín, Rincón del Milberg, and El Talar also intervened, in coordination with the prosecutor's office of Don Torcuato, as was able to be determined by the Noticias Argentinas agency. With the arrests made in the last few hours, investigators believe the structure has been dismantled, while the accused have been made available to the Justice system, and proceedings are advancing to determine if they were involved in other attacks of a similar nature.
