Buenos Aires, December 8 (NA) – Three years have passed since the murder of Lautaro Morello and the disappearance of Lucas Escalante, the two young men who were last seen alive on December 9, 2022. Both victims were kidnapped in the Buenos Aires area of Florencio Varela when they went out to celebrate the Argentina national team's penalty shootout victory over the Netherlands at the World Cup in Qatar, a title that Lionel Scaloni's team won after defeating France in the final. The police found Morello dead a few days later in a vacant lot near the Buenos Aires highway, while the autopsy revealed that he died by strangulation and that during his kidnapping he was tortured, as he had a severed finger and multiple fractures. Escalante is still missing, but investigators confirm that he was also murdered, even though his body has not been found. According to Noticias Argentinas news agency, the trial will take place between April 13 and 17, 2026, at Court No. 2 in Florencio Varela. Initially, the most complicated cases are those of Francisco Centurión, former head of Interpol for the province of Buenos Aires, his son Cristian Centurión, and his nephew Maximiliano Centurión, although other officials are also implicated. The cousins are accused of double aggravated homicide by ambush and cruelty in real conjunction with illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by violence, while Centurión is accused of embezzlement of public funds in real conjunction with illegal deprivation of liberty (regarding Escalante), aggravated by having lasted more than a month and by being committed with violence. Meanwhile, Sergio Argañaraz, former commissioner of Police Station 4 of the Buenos Aires Police, received a 3-year prison sentence for covering up, in the abbreviated trial he requested along with his defense. The judges determined his guilt for the crime of qualified cover-up and for breach of official duties.
