Argentina shocked after triple femicide livestreamed by gang

The murder of three young Argentinian women whose torture by suspected drug traffickers was livestreamed on a private Instagram group has sent shock waves through a country unused to such extreme levels of narco violence.

- Josefina Salomón

Brenda del Castillo, 20, Morena Verdi, 20, and Lara Gutiérrez, 15, went missing last Friday, after they were lured to a house in the outskirts of Buenos Aires by a promise that they would be paid $300 for taking part in a “sex party”.

Instead, authorities say, they were seized and tortured by the traffickers, who streamed the abuse to 45 people via a closed Instagram group, before killing them and burying them in plastic bags outside the house.

Investigators believe the drug traffickers planned the murders as punishment and revenge, after one of the women stole a package of cocaine from one of the dealers, the alleged leader of a criminal group in a marginalised neighbourhood known as Villa 1-11-14.

"They were trying to send a message: this is what happens to those who steal drugs from me," Javier Alonso, security minister of the province of Buenos Aires, said at a press conference.