Buenos Aires, February 5, 2026 - Total News Agency (TNA) - The violent incursion of two dozen armed criminals with knives into a judicial building in San Martín has once again set off all the alarms about the advance of drug trafficking in the Buenos Aires suburbs and the growing sense of impunity with which these organizations operate. The attack generated strong condemnation from the College of Magistrates and Officials of the Judicial Power of the Province of Buenos Aires, which spoke of a structural problem, the extreme vulnerability of judicial workers, and the lack of resources in the face of the impact of the defederalization of street-level drug trafficking. According to judicial sources, it was not a protest or a spontaneous claim, but a coordinated and deliberate action: the aggressors entered shouting, displaying bladed weapons, took over the reception desk, and attempted to advance towards the first-floor offices with direct death threats against the magistrate. At that moment, judicial employees were attending to the public, including a pregnant woman. The scene was of unusual ferocity even by already degraded standards of institutional violence. Their first concern, according to associates, was to preserve the physical integrity of the employees. In the absence of sufficient custody, the workers improvised a barricade with planks to prevent the group from ascending, which nevertheless managed to break a window in its attempt to reach the judge. The hypothesis is that the group was seeking to reorganize and regain control of the drug sales points in Villa Loyola, amidst the historic dispute with the clan led by Miguel Ángel Villalba, alias Mameluco, who still has a strong presence in San Martín and Tres de Febrero. That same clan was linked to one of the most tragic episodes of recent drug trafficking: the sale of cocaine adulterated with carfentanil that in 2022 caused dozens of deaths and dozens of hospitalizations.
Attack on San Martín Court Exposes Growing Cartel Influence in Argentina
A group of armed criminals attacked a judicial building in San Martín, Argentina. The incident, seen as an attack on the judiciary as a whole, revealed a systemic problem: a lack of resources, the vulnerability of judges, and the growing impunity of drug cartels that are moving from territorial disputes to attempts to 'discipline' the justice system.
