Argentine security forces on Friday detained a Mexican fugitive wanted by the United States on narcotics charges, as part of what authorities described as a high-priority operation at a luxury hotel in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero district. According to the Argentine Ministry of Security and the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE), Rodolfo Junior Aguirre Covarrubias, 48, was apprehended after police confirmed his arrival in the country on 8 July and established surveillance. The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois accuses him of trafficking over ten kilograms of cocaine in a case dating back to 2016; he had absconded after being released on bail. International arrest warrant procedures were activated via Interpol’s red notice system, and Argentine officials signalled that extradition proceedings would begin immediately. His point of embarkation remained unclear, with Argentine migration records indicating an arrival from Colombia while some official statements mentioned a flight from Mexico.

In a separate operation on the same day, Colombian judicial authorities ordered the imprisonment of Néstor Luis Castro Méndez, known as ‘Maracucho’, whom the Attorney General’s Office accuses of acting as a territorial chief for the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua organised crime group in central Bogotá. Local investigators allege that between February 2023 and June 2025 he coordinated drug trafficking, extortion, homicide, and illegal weapons circulation in the Santa Fe locality, laundered over 1,075 million Colombian pesos (approximately $250,000) through digital and cash channels, and used violence to control so-called ‘criminal rents’ from street vendors, sex workers and businesses. Castro Méndez denied the charges; the court deemed pre-trial detention necessary.

Also on Friday night, state police in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, arrested Marcos da Silva Oliveira, 36, a man described as a rising figure in a criminal network active in Porto Alegre and its metropolitan region. Authorities said Oliveira, known by the aliases ‘Marquinhos’ and ‘Mãe’, had assumed a more prominent role after the November 2024 death in prison of Jackson Peixoto Rodrigues, ‘Nego Jackson’. He was intercepted on a highway in Getúlio Vargas while allegedly altering his route to evade federal road patrols. Police linked him to drug and arms distribution logistics and suspected money laundering, and noted possible ties to the PCC and Comando Vermelho factions along the Paraguayan border – connections that remain under investigation.