This is Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina.
Beautiful, historic, right on the water, the revolutionary leader Che Guevara and national soccer star Lionel Messi are both from here.
But as you get away from the center of town, another side of the city reveals itself.
On the outskirts, in the slums known as villas, Rosario is beset with poverty and crime.
In recent years, drug use has not only grown among the population of 1.2 million,
but it has also spawned an extremely violent drug war that is little known outside of Argentina.
Rosario is not Mexico or Colombia when it comes to its local drug conflict,
but let's not forget that the wars that we're familiar with in Mexico and Colombia also began like this
drug gangs fighting over territory at gunpoint
often times are not accustomed to such levels of violence
That's why we're here, to understand why violence is on the rise in Rosario and to find out what the authorities are doing about it.
Right now, the villas and barrios of Rosario are the battlegrounds in a mafia turf struggle
that almost sounds like something from the Sopranos
The main drug trafficking gang in Rosario is the group known as
Los Monos, which means "the monkeys."
This is a tight-knit organization led by the Cantero family
Ariel "Máximo" Cantero is their founding leader
and Claudio "El Pájaro" Cantero and Ramón "El Monchi" Machuca
are the main operators
Rival drug lords have shot one another down, resulting in a spiral of unchecked violence that has left hundreds dead
Between 2011 and 2014, more than 570 people have been killed
Making Rosario's homicidal 5 times higher than the that of the rest of Argentina
The situation got so bad that earlier this year, Argentina's government sent in its militarized police force,
the Gendarmerie, to patrol the streets of Rosario's villas
We linked up with a Gendarmerie patrol into one of the villas
We are hereby warned, what happens from here on out is our responsibility
So we're looking at a new reality here in Rosario
the use of spontaneous, unannounced checkpoints where residents, civilians, in their vehicles,
are stopped, their vehicles are searched, this looks like
a situation that reflects a climate in which this has become necessary in Rosario
Rosario is located about 300 miles northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires
in the province of Santa Fe
Rosario sits on a critical highway leading to the porous borders with cocaine-producing Bolivia
and marijuana-producing Paraguay
It's a wonder Argentina hadn't developed profile as a drug trafficking nation much earlier
the country has considerable maritime capacity
with several ports on the Atlantic ocean
connecting it to Europe and the ever-growing global drug market
Drug gangs across the city set up shop literally opening up drug distribution points known as bunkers
These are safe houses or small fortified rooms in which marijuana and cocaine are sold to customers through a tiny service window
as if they were drive-through fast food joints
The dealers had to be able to work long shifts without being able to exit the bunker
Two doors down from the "drug store" that was shut down, there is a handwritten sign on this front door saying,
"This is not the bunker, this is a family's home"
They have to put signs on their doors literally telling people that drugs are not for sale here
go two doors down
Claudio Berón is a police reporter working for La Capital
one of the main newspapers in Rosario
Some gangsters kill each other and some others end up in jail
and when they go to jail, they call Carlos Varela
He is the attorney who represents the most dangerous assassins and drug traffickers in Rosario
He also represents members of the Cantero family
We're here in downtown Buenos Aires
about to meet Sergio Berni, the secretary of security in the cabinet of president Cristina Hernandez de Kirchner
Secretary Berni is going to give us a wider vision of what is happening today with the drug trade and with narco traffic at large
Berni is a lieutenant colonel in Argentina's army, he's a surgeon, master diver, alpine climber, and unabashed enthusiast of President Cristina Hernandez de Kirchner
He is currently the man running the show on anti-drug operations in Argentina
The commercial activity that gangs carried out shifted with the growing drug market in Rosario
Their profits grew and ultimately so did the violence on the streets
Gangs began hiring assassins to carry out hits against their enemies
and so people began killing on request
This made murder another good business in Rosario
So we made a connect and we are on our way right now to meet a sicario, a paid assassin working here in Rosario
What is happening now in Rosario?
Why this sudden increase in violence crime?
How much do you charge to do a job?
How many people have you killed?