The first preliminary hearing in the case of the alleged kidnapping and concealment of Loan Danilo Peña will take place this Friday in the city of Corrientes. The session will begin at 8:30 AM at the Oral Criminal Federal Court No. 7 and will be held virtually, streamed on the YouTube channel of the Judicial Power. General Prosecutor Carlos Schaefer will represent the Public Prosecutor's Office, alongside Acting General Prosecutor Tamara Ahimará Poucel, seven auxiliary prosecutors, and the Prosecution Office for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons (PROTEX), led by prosecutors Marcelo Colombo and Alejandra Mangano. The parties will debate the evidence and the list of witnesses for the oral and public trial, which has no date set yet. Seven of the accused are charged with the kidnapping and concealment of the child: Laudelina Peña (Loan's aunt); former municipal official María Victoria Caillava; former Navy captain Carlos Guido Pérez; Commissioner Walter Maciel (for covering up); Bernardino Antonio Benítez; Daniel Oscar “Fierrito” Ramírez and his partner Mónica del Carmen Millapi, who is under house arrest. The other ten accused of allegedly obstructing the investigation are Alan Cañete, Elizabeth Cuataia, Federico Rossi Colombo, Delfina Taborda, Pablo Noguera, Pablo Núñez, Valeria López, Verónica Machuca Yuni, Leonardo Rubio, and Nicolás Soria, alias “El Americano”. Among the crimes attributed to these ten accused are unlawful deprivation of liberty, fraud against the public administration, obstruction of justice, false testimony, violation of professional secrecy, free supply of narcotics, resistance to authority, and usurpation of insignia and professional titles. Fermín Amado Ceroleni (Corrientes), Eduardo Ariel Belforte (Formosa), and Simón Pedro Bracco (Río Negro) are the three judges selected to conduct the hearing. Loan was last seen on June 13, 2024, when he accompanied his father, José Peña, to his grandmother Catalina's home in the Algarrobal area of the Corrientes locality of 9 de Julio, where they had lunch and then headed to an orange grove. At that moment, the Alert Sofía was activated and the search began, but to this day, there is no certain information about his whereabouts.
