Mayor Sergio Varisco, a close ally of Argentina's Macri, indicted on drug-trafficking charges [View all]

[sandensea]

The mayor of the Argentine city of Paraná, Sergio Varisco, had an indictment on drug-trafficking charges upheld by a federal appeals court yesterday.

Varisco, 58, had been indicted by Federal Judge Leandro Ríos on June 18 on charges of heading a marihuana trafficking operation as well as purchasing three kilos of cocaine for personal use in at least one transaction.

He was elected mayor of Paraná, the country's 18th largest city, in 2015 on President Mauricio Macri's "Let's Change" coalition.

Other city officials indicted were Councilman Héctor Hernández (of Macri's hard-right PRO party), and former Assitant Municipal Security Secretary Griselda Bordeira.

Numerous other Varisco officials were implicated.

Also indicted was Daniel “Tavi” Celis, the operative head of the gang. Celis, who is already serving a 7-year sentence for armed robbery, had contributed 100,000 pesos (around $10,500 at the time) to Varisco's 2015 campaign.

He provided the first link to the mayor when after his arrest in 2016, he posted a Facebook message threatening to tell “the whole truth about how (Varisco) came to be mayor of the city.”

The investigation deepened in May 2017, when authorities intercepted a plane carrying 300 kilos of marihuana (around $400,000 local retail value) from neighboring Paraguay - Argentina's principal source - and arrested two men close to Celis, including his brother, Miguel Ángel.

Authorities reportedly found names of the mayor and other city officials listed next to different amounts of money while searching Miguel Ángel Celis' home.

Varisco will, despite the upheld felony indictment, remain free on bail of 1 million pesos ($32,000).

Critics note that over 20 political opponents of Macri's are currently in federal prison despite still having indictments under appeal - indictments which, in many cases, were based on hearsay but lacking in material evidence.

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Varisco and President Macri campaigning in last year's mid-terms.

The president's party is currently under investigation for laundering at least $3 million in campaign contributions. Varisco's activities may help explain the source of some of those proceeds.