Nothing has been heard from Loan Danilo Peña since last Thursday, June 13. That day, the 5-year-old boy was last seen in Paraje Algarrobar, in the town of 9 de Julio, province of Corrientes. He had gone to lunch at his grandmother Catalina’s house accompanied by his father, José Peña. Today the case has in suspense Argentinasince investigators assure that behind the incident there would be a human trafficking network that kidnapped the minor and sold him.
It was initially reported that Loan had been lost when it was even a naranjo to look for fruits with his uncle Antonio Bernardino Benitez,the family-friendly couple formed by Daniel Ramírez and Mónica Millapi, and other minors. The place is 600 meters from grandmother’s house.
The initial search for the minor focused on the field where he was last seen. He prosecutor Juan Carlos Castillo was in charge of the first stage of the investigation, which was classified as abandonment of person which ended in disappearance.
But the intense rakes carried out in an area of 25 thousand hectares They did not provide any evidence that Loan had been lost in El Algarrobal.
Furthermore, in the reconstruction There were inconsistencies in what happened on the day of the events. While the minors who accompanied Loan They pointed out a path that leads to the grandmother’s house as the last place where they saw him, the adults could not indicate the direction in which the child would have gone.
The adults who had accompanied Loan to look for oranges ended up arrested due to abandonment of person, reported the newspaper La Nación.
In addition to family friends, The lunch was also attended by a municipal official and her husband, who are now a key player in the investigation..
On the eighth day of the disappearance, the prosecutor Guillermo Barry joined the investigations.
A case of human trafficking
Over the weekend, the case took a turn when the court recognized that They could have “taken” Loan. So, the research went from being classified as “abandonment of person” a “human trafficking”.
The main hypothesis that the justice of Argentina the thing is Loan was kidnapped and handed over to a trafficking network. Those suspected of delivering the child for these purposes are Victoria Caillavawho served as Production Director of the municipality of July 9th; and her husband, retired Navy officer Carlos Pérez.
Another of the detainees is the commissioner of 9 de Julio, identified as Walter MacielHe is accused of covering up the kidnapping of the minor by delaying the start of the search and focusing only on the hypothesis of the disappearance. Unlike the other arrested, he was not present at the lunch.
How did they take the child?
On Monday, prosecutors Castillo and Barry issued an opinion in which they gave their version of what happened based on the evidence they gathered and transferred the case to national justice as it was a federal offense.
The Clarín newspaper had access to the six-page document prepared by the prosecutors of Currents. “On June 13, 2024 at that (sic) at approximately 3 p.m. the accused (Carlos) Pérez and (Maria Victoria) Caillava they captured the minor Loan, 5 years old, was transferred to a unknown destination for exploitation purposesthe recruitment took place in mediations (sic) of the Catalina Peña house (Loan’s paternal grandmother) located in Paraje Algarrobal in the town of 9 de Julio,” the text says.
“To achieve the objective Pérez y Caillava They had the collaboration of the accused Bernardino Antonino Benitez (Loan’s uncle), Ramirez Daniel Oscar y Monica del Carmen Millapi (the uncle’s friendly couple),” the document states.
“They carried out a consistent manner in remove the minor from the custody of his fathertaking him to a mountain area at a distance of 600 meters from the minor’s home (It’s actually his grandmother’s house.), with the excuse of picking and consuming oranges, assistance without which, the former could not commit the crime,” the prosecutors’ ruling continues.
The dogs found scent trails of the little one
According to La Nación, it is believed that the municipal official and her husband took the child in a white Ford Ranger pickup truck with which they arrived at the house of Catalina. With the same vehicle, they would have gone to a property on July 9 to later transfer the minor to a red Ford Ka car, which also belongs to them.
With that car, the couple traveled on June 14 to Enduranceprovince of Chaco. The suspicion, indicates La Nación, is that at some point along the route they would have handed over Loan to a human trafficking organization that could have led him to Paraguay.
The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, reported on Monday that the government contacted the authorities of Paraguay given the possibility that the child has been illegally brought to that country.
However, the Paraguayan National Police on Tuesday ruled out the possible presence of the child in the country.
How were the suspects found? This week it was revealed that trained dogs had found traces of the little boy’s smell in two cars belonging to the municipal official and her husband.
“It was a transcendent proof which determined the presence of Loan’s odor in Pérez and Caillava’s vehicles. In the truck, to a lesser extent, and one hundred percent in the Ford Ka. This is related to the time that Loan remained in each vehicle,” said Guillermo Barry, who drives the Fiscal Unit for Reception and Analysis of Cases (Ufrac), a department of the Public Ministry of Corrientes.
On Monday night, Corrientes prosecutors said the retired Navy captain Carlos perezorganized the capture and kidnapping of the little boy, and used the links of his wife, Maria Victoria Caillavato carry out his criminal plan.
The commissioner “sowed evidence”
Regarding the role of the commissioner Walter Macielprosecutors maintain that “he altered traces and evidence of the fact that I discovered, thus hindering the course of the investigation by removing a shoe from the neighborhood that was later confirmed to be Loan’s, also pretending that he himself had found itissue that there is evidence that the footwear was found by Laudelina Peña (Loan’s aunt), determined a posteriori by the report of the deputy director of civil defense that the evidence in question had been intentionally planted to divert the investigationsince Loan had not been at the location of the shoe.”
“We know that they planted the shoe on us in the place. Us we trusted what they told us, but later we realized that the head of the police station was the one who authorized everything to divert the investigation. We immediately asked for his arrest,” prosecutor Castillo later said at a press conference.
On Sunday, Clarion had reported that prosecutors corroborated allegations against the commissioner that he was pressuring residents of July 9th so that they would not go to the marches that were being called to demand Loan’s appearance.
Loan’s dad speaks
As for Loan’s dad, Jose Pena spoke with the program “Argentine Mornings” of C5N and revealed details about the day his son disappeared.
He said he had no idea he would meet so many people at lunch and targeted directly against Laudelina Peñahis sister and partner of Antonio Benítez, one of the six detained.
He said that Laudenia “it has something to do with it” and stated that it was the first to tell him that his son was missing.
Regarding those accused of being material authors of Loan’s kidnapping, Maria Victoria Caillava and her husband Carlos perez, José Peña assured that he knew them, but that They didn’t have a friendship.
He also revealed that at the moment they found out about Loan’s disappearance, the husband and wife They got into their truck and left the place. “They came out and left calmly, already knowing that the baby was lost. They showed no concern. They got into the truck and left. I don’t know why they didn’t collaborate with the search.”.
“I suspect everyone at the table might have received money for handing it over.except my mother,” said José Peña.