They are Brandon Bay and Erica Altamirano, leaders of the dreaded criminal gang known as Los Gorditos, which has expanded through blood and fire.
At the end of a trial conducted by the Federal Oral Court 3 (TOF 3), Brandon Bay, one of the most feared robbers in Greater Rosario, was sentenced to 12 years in prison as an organizer of drug trafficking. Meanwhile his mother, Erica Altamirano, received a combined sentence of 16 years. Some gang members will serve sentences for being considered secondary participants in the criminal organization that emerged in the Fuerte Apache complex and the Tiro Suizo neighborhood in southern Rosario that later expanded, with blood and fire, through the road to Villa Gobernador Gálvez and San Lawrence. Bay is currently detained at the Marcos Paz federal prison, the same prison where Máximo Ariel “Guille” Cantero is housed.
The court composed of judges Osvaldo Facciano, Eugenio Martínez and Mario Gambacorta also sentenced Ricardo Andino (Altamirano’s partner) to a sentence of 4 years and six months and Sebastián Rodrigo Núñez, to a sentence of 3 years and six months of imprisonment. The prosecutor is Federico Reynares Solari.
In the middle of 2015, the killing of José Eduardo “Cepillo” Fernández in Fuerte Apache put Los Gorditos in the public opinion, a gang that gained the fear of the streets through its indifference. Drug trafficking, murder, robbery and extortion have since been attributed to the group and some of these events led to Brandon Bay’s imprisonment in 2017. Since then, the leader of the band has been, because of his commanding voice and his executive role, Erica Altamirano.
As often happens in the world of the dead in Rosario, Intra Muros Bay has been moved to another level of the criminal game in the region. While he was serving his sentence in the Coronda prison, the judicial investigation began to identify the expansion of the gang towards the industrial cordon, with roots in the Northern neighborhood of San Lorenzo and Puerto San Martín.
After a series of murders that caused the neighbors to eat and the destruction of a drug bunker in the middle of a town, between 2019 and 2020, the group partially dismantled in June 2020. The reason was Brian’s crime. Runi” Sánchez , a 16-year-old teenager who was shot from a motorcycle on May 28, 2020 when he asked for Miter 900 coins, and the rails, in San Lorenzo. A 24-year-old young man was seriously injured in the attack.
Neighbors expressed their anger: they burned containers, marched along Costanera Street leading to National Route 11 and beat the bunker in front of which Gerardo “Pecho” Pérez was killed three days ago, who was shot in the back. chest in another attack attributed to Los Gorditos. The first crime in the saga was that of cumbia cross dancer Rodrigo Gigena, 25, who was mistakenly shot from a car on the night of August 6, 2019 in the Norte neighborhood of San Lorenzo when he was standing on the sidewalk in front of his family’s business.
The fat ones
The Los Gorditos gang recently assimilated the heavy sentences handed down more than a month ago. A month later, in a trial that exposed how drug-trafficking organizations managed to extend beyond the imprisonment of their bosses, Brandon was sentenced by a provincial court to life in prison. The same punishment was imposed on members Fabián Agustín Sandoval, Claudio “Primo” Ríos, and Cintia Nair Estrella, along with Brandon. Juan Manuel “Pera” Alvarez received a lesser sentence of 15 years in prison.
As stated in the hearings, Bay was incarcerated in the Coronda prison serving a sentence for the first gang invasion south of Rosario when he began to settle, thanks to the contacts of a cellmate Denis and a native of the industrial cordon, in the business of selling drugs in the Norte neighborhood of San Lorenzo, an area separated by the river from the city of Puerto San Martín.
A violent dispute over territories and corrupt agreements with the chiefs of police guaranteed the landing of this branch of Los Gorditos, with a method consisting of causing casualties to other gangs that until then with no conflicts to face each other. Bay was sentenced for his role as the leader of the group and as the instigator from prison in six armed attacks. The same punishment was imposed on members Fabián Agustín Sandoval, Claudio “Primo” Ríos, and Cintia Nair Estrella, along with Brandon. Juan Manuel “Pera” Alvarez received a lesser sentence of 15 years in prison.
The investigation that ended with the final conviction of Brandon and his mother, reached its peak on December 13, 2021 when members of the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) conducted a series of raids ordered by the prosecutor of Pablo Shootings units. Soca. In these police operations, Erica Altamirano and her daughter Aldana, one of Brandon’s siblings, were arrested at an address in the hallway of Denmark at 555 bis.
When the house was raided, 5 kilos of cocaine and 2.5 kilos of marijuana were found. In May 2022, TOF 3 sentenced Altamirano to 5 years and 6 months in prison for the crime of drug trafficking in the form of commercialization. A sentence combined to 7 years and 6 months. Aldana, for his part, received a sentence of 6 years and 6 months, which included a two-year sentence in the provincial court.
Two weeks later, Altamirano went through the sentencing counter again. He was sentenced to 7 years and 4 months in prison on an abbreviated agreement for leading a street organization when his son was incarcerated. According to the sentence approved by Judge José Luis Suárez, the leadership held by the woman was proven by wiretapping and the seizure of drugs in raids on the houses of the various defendants.. He is accused of “a dominant and active leadership role in the illegal association founded by his son Brandon” in the eventual formation of Los Gorditos.
