The corporate presence in the club's structure quickly consolidated as an internal power factor. Everything changed in December 2023, when then-Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced the dismantling of an organization that, according to the federal investigation, laundered money from drug trafficking from the Mameluco Villalba clan. The operation raised suspicions of a preferential link between the municipal government and the construction firm, which rapidly expanded its influence beyond the real estate business. The penetration of the Dinal Group and Lenner into the institutional life of Club Luján was direct. Both firms, based in San Martín, had historically operated in the same territory where the Villalba clan developed its criminal activities. The explosion of the judicial case had a full impact on the economic network. Mayor Leonardo Boto and club president Federico Vanin are pointed to as promoters of the decisions that allowed the investigated businessmen to occupy key positions. As concern grows among neighbors and those affected, the silence of political leaders who supported the arrival of the involved firms persists. According to local testimonies, both leaders have avoided giving public explanations and downplay the crisis, generating a growing climate of unease. The case once again puts on stage the relationship between local political power and business groups with controversial backgrounds, and reopens questions about the lack of institutional controls that allowed this network to consolidate in one of Luján's most traditional sports clubs. In that case file, the two business groups in charge of the works in Luján—the Dinal Group and the Lenner construction company—are mentioned as shell companies used to launder illicit funds. Immediately after, the municipality approved—without passing through the Deliberative Council or without an environmental impact study—a mega real estate project of 411 apartments and a 100,000-square-meter shopping center, called Tao Bosque. The plot, which mixes business ties, urban benefits, and judicial suspicions, originated in 2020, when the Lenner construction company, part of the Dinal Group, owned by Néstor Ruiz, arrived in the city. NARCOTRAFFICKING AND POLITICSThe links of the Luján La Cámpora's mayor and his councilor with the construction company accused of laundering money for the Mameluco Villalba clan.A few months after settling in Luján, the company made a strategic donation: it financed the construction of the new bus terminal bathrooms. Today it records more than 280 bounced checks for lack of funds for an amount exceeding 700 million pesos, a concrete indicator of the financial deterioration that dragged its projects down. As a consequence, numerous families that had acquired units or trusted the company for works in Luján, San Martín, and Mar del Plata are demanding answers due to paralyzed constructions and unfulfilled commitments. Luján, November 27, 2025 – Total News Agency-TNA– Club Luján became embroiled in a growing controversy after it was revealed that businessmen investigated for alleged money laundering managed to position themselves in the leadership of the sports entity with the political backing of La Cámpora mayor Leonardo Boto. The club's president, Federico Vanin—Secretary of Human Development for the municipality and councilor-elect for La Cámpora—approved the incorporation of company executives onto the board of directors. Thus, the construction company's sales manager, Juan Pablo Fagiani, took office as vice president, while Néstor Ruiz himself became a member, as reported by La Postal de Mar del Plata. The construction company has been left practically insolvent: it is considered delinquent and unrecoverable by both the National Bank and the Provincial Bank, and faces severe problems with the Supervielle Bank.
