The torture and killing of three young women, one of them a minor, shocked Argentina. But what caused real horror, authorities say, is that the drug traffickers accused of the crime broadcast it live on social media.
According to a spokesman for the Buenos Aires provincial security ministry, last Friday the victims were lured to a house on the outskirts of the capital, where the torture and murder were streamed through private Instagram and TikTok accounts. The victims were identified as 20-year-old Brenda del Castillo, 20-year-old Morena Verdi and 15-year-old Lara Gutiérrez.
Police believe an international drug cartel was behind the crime. Investigators say the killings were staged as an act of retribution after the theft of a small consignment of narcotics in which one of the victims was likely involved.
“All indications are that this was revenge linked to drugs,” Buenos Aires provincial security minister Javier Alonso told a press conference on Wednesday. “You could call it a settling of scores.”
The killings sent shockwaves through Argentina, where cartel-style brutality is far less common than in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America. The case also highlights the growing use of social media by criminal groups to intimidate rivals, journalists documenting their activities, and the broader public.
The three young women were last seen on the evening of September 19, around 9:30 p.m., getting into a white van in one of Buenos Aires’s suburbs. Police said they were then taken to a house about 30 kilometers from the capital, lured by the promise of payment for sex work.
“They were deceived into this situation,” said Buenos Aires provincial security minister Javier Alonso, stressing that the plan had been carefully devised by an international criminal network to trap the victims.
Later that night the women were tortured and killed, with the crime broadcast on social media to an audience of 45 people, Alonso added. A ministry spokesman on Friday declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, said that “no evidence has been found of the livestream taking place on Instagram. Our team continues to cooperate with law enforcement in investigating this horrific crime.”
Earlier this week investigators discovered the victims’ bodies—buried in the garden in plastic bags. Police have so far arrested four suspects, but investigators believe others may have been involved.
Authorities say criminal groups are expanding their presence in Argentina, which has become a key transit corridor for narcotics shipments from Bolivia and Peru to Europe. The drug trade is fueling competition and violence among criminal networks vying for territory and profit.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei, a self-styled libertarian with a hard “law and order” agenda, has taken a tough stance on the cartels, pledging to prosecute their members as terrorists.