Jorge Castillo, known as the “King of La Salada.”
A federal appeals court in La Plata has ordered the release of several key figures tied to La Salada, the huge marketplace in Lomas de Zamora, after finding that the case against them was too weak to support continued prosecution at this stage. The ruling overturned earlier indictments with pretrial detention and replaced them with a finding of lack of merit, meaning the evidence was not strong enough either to uphold the charges or to close the case completely.
The decision is a major turn in one of Argentina’s most closely watched money-laundering investigations. The case had led to the closure of La Salada’s main fairgrounds, large police raids, asset freezes, and the detention of people whom prosecutors had described as leaders, relatives, employees, and professionals linked to the business structure around the market.
Judges Carlos Alberto Vallefín and Roberto Agustín Lemos Arias strongly questioned the work of both the lower court and the prosecution. In their view, the indictments issued in July of last year came too early and lacked the factual precision needed to support charges as serious as criminal association and money laundering. As a result, the chamber revoked the detentions, lifted the multimillion-peso embargoes, and ordered the immediate release of those who had been jailed.
Among those who benefited from the ruling are Jorge Omar Castillo, Antonio Corrillo Torrez, Aldo Enrique Presa, and a broader group of relatives, employees, and associates who had also been included in the case. The court made clear, however, that this was not a final acquittal. The investigation remains open and can continue while the evidence is reviewed again.
Appeals Court Says the Charges Were Too Vague
The prosecution had argued that two separate criminal structures operated inside La Salada. Under that theory, one group was linked to Castillo, Presa, and Corrillo Torrez and centered on the Punta Mogote, Mogote Factory, and Olimpo fairgrounds. A second group was allegedly tied to Enrique Esteban Antequera and the Urkupiña fair. Prosecutors said these groups sold counterfeit goods on a massive scale, systematically evaded taxes, and then laundered the proceeds.
According to the case file, more than 26 billion pesos allegedly entered Punta Mogote bank accounts between 2021 and 2025. Investigators also pointed to luxury homes, rural properties, and high-end vehicles as possible signs of illicit enrichment. On that basis, the lower court had imposed embargoes of up to 750 million pesos on the alleged leaders, along with additional asset freezes on other defendants and the seizure of multiple vehicles.
Police during the closure of La Salada fairgrounds in Lomas de Zamora.
But the appeals court said the lower ruling did not explain clearly enough what each defendant had actually done that would turn normal business or administrative activity into criminal conduct. The judges said the decision blurred the line between running a large, legally registered commercial structure and taking part in a criminal association. In their view, the ruling also failed to show the minimum level of coordination or shared purpose needed to support that accusation.
The chamber also found major weaknesses in the money-laundering theory. It said the lower court had not carried out a solid analysis of the alleged laundering acts, including when they happened, how they were carried out, and by what mechanisms supposedly illegal funds entered the formal economy. In particular, the judges said the ruling mostly listed assets owned by the accused without showing that the money used to buy them came from a specific underlying crime.
The Investigation Remains Open, but the Case Has Changed Direction
Defense lawyers challenged the case from several angles. Castillo argued that Punta Mogote is a lawful company registered as a real-estate business and that it was factually impossible to control the goods sold across more than 2,000 rotating stalls. Other defendants said they had been included only because of routine professional or administrative roles, while some argued that the currency exchange and check operations mentioned in the file were legal business activity.
The appeals court did not fully endorse those defense arguments, but it did agree that the evidentiary threshold for prosecution had not been met. It said the file contained broad and vague claims that were not enough to continue treating the defendants as formally charged under such serious criminal theories. At the same time, the judges said the record was not strong enough to dismiss the case outright, which is why they chose a lack-of-merit ruling instead.
That distinction is central. The ruling does not end the investigation, but it does dismantle the legal basis that had been used to justify detention, embargoes, and the earlier theory of a fully established criminal enterprise. It also shifts attention back to the quality of the investigation in the lower court, especially the need for individualized evidence and a clearer explanation of the alleged predicate crimes behind the laundering accusation.
Vehicles seized during the La Salada investigation were among the precautionary measures later reversed by the appeals court.
The case had immediate economic and social consequences. La Salada was shut down for several weeks, prompting protests from stall operators and customers whose trade was disrupted. The market serves as a major wholesale hub, with buyers traveling from across Argentina on shopping tours to purchase low-cost clothing for resale in their home provinces.
For now, the appeals ruling changes the direction of the case in a significant way. What had been presented as a major money-laundering structure tied to one of the country’s best-known informal commercial centers is now back under closer review, with the court making clear that suspicion alone is not enough to sustain prosecution without more precise and better-supported evidence.
