Judge Humberto René Otazú ordered the pretrial detention of Cristian Porfirio Amarilla Cabaña, Aldo Osmar Pintos Martínez and Alicia Marlene Vázquez Samaniego, who are under investigation for allegedly leaking information and obstructing investigations linked to the late lawmaker Eulalio “Lalo” Gomes. Amarilla was director of intelligence at the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), Paraguay’s anti-drug agency; Pintos is a colonel and former commander of the Special Forces; and Vázquez worked in the Organized Crime Investigation Department. The three were transferred to the Viñas Cué military prison.
The case is being prosecuted by anti-drug prosecutors Ingrid Cubilla, José Martín Morínigo, Luis Said and Christian Ortiz. In different combinations, they accuse the suspects of criminal association, aggravated frustration of criminal prosecution and enforcement of criminal sentences because of their official positions, failure by a public official charged with preventing crimes to fulfill that duty and, in Pintos’s case, influence peddling. References to the so-called Gomes clan as a structure devoted to international drug trafficking and money laundering appear in the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s charges and do not yet represent convictions.
The investigation is based, among other elements, on the extraction of messages and calls from Gomes’s cellphone. One episode involves Operation Sanctus, carried out on December 8, 2023, when prosecutors maintain that Pintos may have helped thwart the arrest of Brazilian national Ronaldo Mendes Nunes, who was under investigation for drug trafficking. Prosecutors also attribute later maneuvers to Pintos and Amarilla that allegedly sought to sever Gomes’s connection to the logistics of the escape.
Another issue concerns Operation Pavo Real I, involving assets and alleged front men linked to Jarvis Chimenes Pavão. According to the charges, Amarilla and Vázquez omitted Gomes’s connection to Estancia Negla Poty from a final report in July 2024, even though the information appeared in preliminary documents. Vázquez allegedly asked that the politician’s name not be mentioned, but the report reportedly retained a message indicating his connection to the property.
Pintos is also accused of asking Gomes to use his influence to obtain a vehicle as a court-appointed custodian. In an account published by El Observador, the response attributed to the former lawmaker was: “Charge it with that one.” The same investigation mentions that Hugo Derlis Baptista Báez, a former director general of SENAD’s anti-drug operations and Gomes’s cousin, allegedly offered him a 7.62 mm Mauser rifle reserved for the exclusive use of public forces. Baptista remains charged, like the others involved, but is not covered by the detention order for the three agents.
The case also involves Helga Lizany Concepción Solís Gómez, Gomes’s niece and Alexandre Rodrigues Gomes’s cousin. She worked as a prosecutorial assistant from 2019 to 2023 and was assigned to the Cerro Corá municipal government. Represented by attorney Jorge Barrios, she appeared in Pedro Juan Caballero and refused to testify. A pretrial detention order exists, but the sources differ on where it is being carried out: one says she is being held at the National Police’s Organized Crime Investigation Department, while others indicate Viñas Cué.
According to the charges, Solís Gómez allegedly acted as a link between Gomes’s family circle and public officials. The cited facts include the alleged alteration in 2019 of police records to benefit Kadu Cezar Machado, identified as a member of the First Capital Command (PCC), as well as efforts to obtain a favorable report. The prosecution also says she tried to prevent Gomes and Alexandre from being identified in an investigation into former BBVA employee Claudia [surname omitted] for breach of trust and bank fraud, and that she leaked information about Operation Sanctus to Gomes and his son.
A publication by El Observador, based on an account attributed to Solís Gómez about a conversation with her niece, says Gomes claimed to have spoken at length with Jalil Rachid on February 10, 2024, after reports about Mendes Nunes’s escape. Three days later, according to the same account, Solís said Rachid had met with Baptista, Amarilla and Pintos and that the meeting allegedly reassured the agents, who would have the minister’s support. The content was presented as evidence in the charges, and the sources do not indicate that it received independent confirmation.
Opposition Senator Rafael Filizzola argued that Rachid’s responsibility should also be investigated, both over the alleged leaks and over keeping officials under suspicion in their posts. In criticism reproduced by El Nacional, he accused the Public Prosecutor’s Office of selective action, referred to disputes and cross-accusations involving SENAD, the Ministry of the Interior and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and called for the roles of Marco Alcaraz, Liliana Alcaraz and Lorenzo Lezcano to be examined as well. Filizzola also questioned the lack of protocols and transparency in the purchase of telephone-interception equipment financed by Itaipu Binacional, initially intended for SENAD and later transferred to the National Police.
The defenses requested alternative measures, including house arrest, detention at a SENAD facility and recognition of the defendants’ voluntary appearance, established ties to the country and health problems. Amarilla’s defense offered properties as bail. Otazú found that the expected sentences, flight risk and the possibility of interference with evidence—especially because of the defendants’ hierarchical positions—justified detention. The deadline for prosecutors to submit their concluding request is March 15, 2027.