Former PSG player Angel Di Maria threatened with death in Argentina by “narcoterrorists”

Angel Di Maria a été menacé, juste après avoir confié vouloir revenir à Rosario. LUSA – FILIPE AMORIM

L’ancien milieu de terrain du Paris Saint-Germain, Angel Di Maria, aujourd’hui joueur au Benfica Lisbonne, a reçu des menaces de mort de la part de "narcoterroristes", ce lundi 25 mars.

Police are investigating threats against the family of world football champion Angel Di Maria at his home near Rosario, amid recent similar threats linked to drug trafficking in Argentina's third largest city. we learned on Monday from a judicial source.

A threatening message, the content of which has not been revealed, was launched from a car in the early hours of Monday over the entrance to the closed neighborhood of Funes, in the outskirts of Rosario, where Di Maria has a residence, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor told AFP. The message was contained in a nylon bag.

The police are “taking fingerprints, images from surveillance cameras and testimonies,” added the spokesperson. The content of the message was not revealed “so as not to play into the hands of criminal organizations seeking to arouse public emotion,” said a source from the Ministry of Security. province of Santa Fe.

Rosario, transit point for drugs

According to media reports, however, it bears the words "Even Pullaro will not save you", a reference to Maximiliano Pullaro, governor of the province since December, and who declared war on local drug trafficking. Rosario, 300 km from Buenos Aires, is considered the most dangerous city in Argentina, with a homicide rate of 22 per 100,000 inhabitants, five times higher than the national.

A large river port for grain exports, Rosario is also a transit point for drugs from neighboring countries, which have been flowing for years into local drug trafficking, small gangs, frequent shootings and extortions.< /p>

A wave of violence in early March saw four murders in five days, two taxi drivers, one bus driver and a gas station worker. The authorities analyze this violence as a "reaction" of imprisoned gang leaders, taking the local population hostage, against a recent tightening of their detention conditions, under the leadership of Mr. Pullaro.

Also read: Football: burglary at the home of PSG attacking midfielder Angel Di Maria, four suspects in police custody

On Monday, the Rosario bus network was at a standstill, after another threat, targeting a bus driver. One hypothesis of the investigators is that Di Maria, 36 years old, originally from Rosario and who plays for Benfica (after Real Madrid and PSG in particular) is targeted to obtain the maximum echo.

Last year, it was a business belonging to the in-laws of Lionel Messi, also from Rosario, which had been targeted, riddled with bullets in the night, also in for advertising purposes, according to the authorities.