Former Argentine Police Officer Detained with 14kg of Cocaine

Buenos Aires, Argentina – A former member of the Federal Police of Argentina's (PFA) Internal Affairs division was detained at a roadblock on National Route 14 in Chajarí. Officers from the Entre Ríos police discovered she was transporting 14 kg of high-purity cocaine hidden in the moldings of a black Ford Fiesta. Initial investigations indicate that the detained individual was traveling from the province of Misiones to the locality of San Justo in La Matanza, a route frequently used by criminal organizations operating in the country's northeast border region. Following the seizure of the cargo, Méndez was arrested and taken to a police station in Chajarí, where she will remain until the federal judge in Concordia, Analía Ramponi, determines her legal status. The detainee, identified as María Florencia Méndez, 29, is at the disposal of the Federal Justice system and is being investigated for alleged drug trafficking. The operation took place at kilometer 341 of the highway, where police stopped the vehicle for a routine inspection. Her nervousness caught the officers' attention, who immediately detected signs of possible tampering with the car's body. Police officers noticed new rivets in the internal cavities of the car, which prompted the call of a canine duo specialized in drug detection. The dog marked the suspicious area, and after dismantling part of the molding, agents discovered several pressed packages wrapped in waterproof material. A chemical reagent confirmed it was cocaine. The seized cargo weighs exactly 14 kg, and according to police estimates, has an approximate value of $105 million on the local market. In the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, its price would quintuple, while in Europe it would reach even higher figures, according to the preliminary valuation provided by case investigators. Méndez had abruptly left her post in the PFA's Internal Affairs at the beginning of this year without notifying her superiors. This irregular absence resulted in an administrative summary, which was still in process at the time of her detention. According to sources in the case, Méndez attempted to identify herself as a member of a security force, but had no credentials or regulation weapon. The judge ordered urgent measures to determine if the accused was acting as part of a larger network and if there are connections with criminal circuits in the region. The detention of a former Internal Affairs member—a division specifically responsible for auditing and controlling irregularities within the PFA—has a strong impact in police and judicial circles, which are now investigating the possibility of previous ties with larger-scale criminal structures.