POLICE in Argentina have seized a gun and cocaine after arresting three people over chilling threats made against former Manchester United star Angel Di Maria.
A .22 Bersa pistol and cocaine was discovered in the home of main suspect Pablo Acotto after he was held as he left the property.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich confirmed the arrests and named the trio held in an overnight tweet as she claimed they were about to try to flee Di Maria’s home city of Rosario when the net closed around them.
She said: “Pablo Acotto, who was being investigated for drug trafficking, confessed in wiretaps to being the author and accomplices Sara Belen Gutierrez and Gabriel Ismael Pastore were arrested by the Argentine Federal Police and the Santa Fe Police when they were planning on escaping their home.
“Great work by the federal prosecutor Javier Arzubi and Pablo Socca, from the Santa Fe Public Prosecutor’s Office, who enabled us to obtain the information on the person behind the threats.
“We go after mafias, drug traffickers and extortion to bring security to the people of Rosario and all Argentines.”
The three arrests occurred yesterday, two days after 138-cap Argentina international and World Cup winner Di Maria, 36, received a threat at his family home on the outskirts of Rosario.
A sign was left in front of the private neighbourhood called Funes Hills Miraflores, where the 36-year-old usually stays, addressed to his family saying not even the provincial governor Maximiliano Pullaro could guarantee their safety if he returned to the city.
News website Infobae, citing police sources, said the message read: “Tell your son Angel not to come back to Rosario because we will kill a family member. Not even Pullaro is going to save you.
“We don’t leave paper notes. We leave bullets and dead people behind.”
A security guard told investigators he heard four shots fired from the car the suspects used to leave the threat, a grey Renault Megane later found abandoned nearby which was picked up on CCTV cameras.
The ex-Red Devils footballer – who scored a free-kick in Argentina’s 3-1 comeback friendly win over Costa Rica in Los Angeles this week – and his family were targeted a few days after the current Benfica star said he would like to end his career at his boyhood club Rosario Central.
Public prosecutor Pablo Socca, head of the investigation which led to yesterday’s arrests, has rejected claims the threats were part of a campaign of intimidation by hooligans from a rival Rosario club.
The suspects have been described locally as members of a drug trafficking gang.
Authorities say they are still probing why Di Maria and his family were threatened.
The Argentine government sent soldiers to Rosario, which is also Lionel Messi’s home city, earlier this month to tackle a wave of drug trafficking and gang-related violence which has left law-abiding locals terrorised.
Socca said: “We have to look into what motivated the threat, which could lead us to the ideologist, but it’s something we prefer to keep back at the moment to protect our investigation.”
He added: “The two people who were in the car which left the threat against Di Maria have been arrested.”
The alarm was raised around 2.30am local time on Monday.
Six separate raids have so far been carried out as part of the investigation.
Acotto is said to have come under the police radar after being recorded confessing to his involvement to a woman called Tamara in a wiretap ordered as part of a separate drugs trafficking investigation.
The three arrests are understood to have been made after undercover cops watching Acotto’s home saw a couple arrive before all three left moments earlier.
Police said the prime suspect was carrying a small amount of cocaine, two phones and cash on him when he was stopped and searched.
A larger amount of cocaine and the handgun were found inside the property.
All three suspects were remanded in custody pending an ongoing investigation.
The prison cell of a convict linked to a Rosario-based drugs gang called Los Monos, named locally as Dylan Cantero, was also searched yesterday amid unconfirmed claims he could have ordered the attack on Di Maria and his family.
Although Acotto has been identified as the alleged material author of the threats, authorities are working on the basis that he and his accomplices were ‘foot soldiers’ working under orders from someone higher up their gang chain.
The horrific ordeal for Di Maria and his family comes just 12 months after the front of a Rosario supermarket chain owned by the family of Messi’s wife Antonela Roccuzzo was shot at.
A message was later found at the scene which read: “Messi, we are waiting for you.
