Argentine police recapture fugitive killers after 13-day manhunt

Police recaptured three of Argentina's most wanted murderers, convicted of drug-related killings, in a chase through flooded farmland on Saturday, ending a 13-day manhunt that raised questions over the political connections of the country's narco gangs, according to Reuters.

Hundreds of security agents, including police commandos and sharpshooters, hunted down the men in the grains province of Santa Fe, north of the capital Buenos Aires.

President Mauricio Macri congratulated the security forces and promised to fight the drug gangs that use Argentina as a transit point for smuggling South American drugs to Europe and the Americas.

"We have a lot more work to do," Macri said on his official Twitter account.

Victor Schillaci and brothers Martin and Cristian Lanatta had been on the run since escaping from a maximum security jail where they were serving life sentences on Dec. 27.

Local police in the town of Cayasta, 570 km (354 miles) north of the capital, were tipped off about their whereabouts after the stolen vehicle the men were using got bogged down on a muddy track, hours after they rolled a different pick-up truck.

Martin Lanatta was nabbed mid-morning while horse-mounted police cornered his brother and Schillaci hours later.

Local TV channels broadcast a photograph purportedly showing a shaven-headed Martin Lanatta with a black eye and facial cuts in what appeared to be a concrete cell or holding area. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the image.

The trio were convicted over the 2008 killing of three businessmen in the pharmaceutical industry allegedly linked to an ephedrine trafficking gang in a high-profile case dubbed "The triple murder". Ephedrine is used for the production of methamphetamine.

Their daring escape came two weeks after Macri took office. It raised suspicions of outside help and a blame game erupted between Macri and officials in the government of former president, Cristina Fernandez.

"Drug-trafficking has grown in the last decade like never before in our country because of the inaction or complicity of the last government," Macri said this week, vowing to take on the traffickers.

In August, two months before the presidential election, Martin Lanatta alleged Fernandez's cabinet chief, Anibal Fernandez, was involved in the ephedrine trade and ordered the triple murder.

Anibal Fernandez has rigorously denied the accusation and prosecutors have not investigated the claim. The then-ruling party said the allegation was designed to hurt its presidential candidates and derail Anibal Fernandez's bid to become governor of Buenos Aires province.

The manhunt intensified on Thursday, when TV footage showed commandos snaking through swathes of corn fields and searching outhouses as federal and provincial security forces closed the dragnet on the fugitives.

Source: SPA