Former senator Erico Galeano, sentenced to 13 years in prison for drug-trafficking money laundering and criminal association, spent his first night in custody in a roughly 15-square-meter cell at the National Police Judicial Department in Asunción. The cell, located at the back of the property, currently holds about 140 people, although its capacity is up to 200 detainees.
Commissioner Ramón Cañete, head of the Judicial Department, said Galeano shared the space with four or five other inmates, sleeping on single mattresses on the floor. The unit has one bathroom but no budget for feeding the detainees, who rely on their families. “We have no budget line for feeding people, since it is a temporary holding facility. We authorize family members to provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner,” Cañete told Monumental 1080 AM radio.
Galeano entered the facility around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Family members had to bring his evening meal and blankets. The court ordered his pretrial detention after he resigned from Congress, following the ratification of his conviction.
Rubén Peña, director of Penitentiary Establishments at the Ministry of Justice, confirmed that Galeano will be transferred on Wednesday to the National Pretrial Detention Center, at the former Tacumbú National Penitentiary, where he will serve his pretrial detention.
The former lawmaker was convicted for proven ties to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset and to Miguel Ángel Insfrán, known as Tío Rico, both targets of Operation A Ultranza PY, considered the largest crackdown on organized crime in Paraguay's history.