Assailants attacked a car carrying funds from a business belonging to footballer Lionel Messi’s in-laws in Rosario (300 km from Buenos Aires) on Wednesday, stealing $21,500 and opening fire, police reported.
Two attackers broke the windows of the car which was transporting two employees of a supermarket from the family of Antonella Roccuzzo, Messi’s wife, as well as her cousin.
They were given two bags containing 8 million pesos in proceeds ($21,500), which were in transit to the bank in central Rosario.
Before fleeing by car, the attackers fired at least once. The occupants of the victim car were shocked but were unhurt.
This is not the first time that the business of Messi’s in-laws has been targeted in Rosario, the hometown of the captain of the reigning world champion Argentine selection.
In March, the metal curtain of a supermarket belonging to the Roccuzzos was machine-gunned at night, with a threatening but mysterious message: “Messi we are waiting for you, Javkin (mayor of Rosario, editor’s note) is a narco, he will not take care not from you”.
Investigators estimated at the time that the attack was not necessarily aimed at Messi, but at a “resonance” using his name. Mayor Pablo Javkin estimated that the attack could be linked to a political low blow targeting him, against a backdrop of local insecurity and upcoming provincial elections.
“The supermarket operates with a private security company,” Commissioner Diego Santamaria told reporters on site. Analyzes of surveillance cameras, fingerprinting, and hearings are underway “to find out who knew” of the transfer of funds, he added.
The port city of Rosario, the third largest in Argentina (1 million inhabitants) is considered the most dangerous. In recent years, it has become a hotspot for drug trafficking, with a homicide rate of 22 per 100,000 inhabitants, or 4 times the country’s average.
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