The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation rejected a appeal filed by the defense of former Buenos Aires judge César Melazo, who sought to prevent him from being accused as the head of a criminal association, in the framework of the case in which he was convicted for being part of a mega-band composed of police, hooligans, prisoners, and judicial officials from La Plata. The highest court, with the signatures of Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, dismissed the presentation on the grounds that it was not a final or equivalent sentence. Melazo had challenged a ruling by the Buenos Aires Supreme Court that had ordered the provincial Court of Cassation to review a request by the Public Prosecutor's Office to aggravate his charge and consider him the head of the criminal organization. Melazo, who served as a Guarantees Judge in La Plata, was convicted in 2023 by the Oral Court in Criminal II to seven years and ten months in prison for being part of a criminal association, illegal possession of a civilian conditional-use firearm, and cover-up. According to the prosecution, the criminals operated in lawless zones and, if arrested, received procedural benefits from allied officials. Melazo had resigned from his post in June 2017 to avoid an impeachment trial and was arrested in August 2018 during an operation at his home in Gorina, where a firearm was seized from him. Following the guilty verdict, the prosecution insisted on aggravating the charge by maintaining that the former magistrate led the organization, but the court understood that he was just another member. In the same ruling, former commissioner Gustavo Bursztyn, former officer Gustavo Mena, Adrián Manes, Carlos Bertoni, and Enrique “Quique” Petrullo, among others, were also convicted. According to the investigation, the band operated between 2010 and 2015 in the Buenos Aires capital, committing home robberies, scams, and assaults, with police and judicial protection. The Buenos Aires Supreme Court upheld that claim and ordered the case to be sent back to Cassation for review.
