Two men on a motorcycle fired 14 shots at a supermarket owned by soccer player Lionel Messi’s in-laws in Rosario, Santa Fe province, Argentina on Thursday. Argentine police said the men also left a threatening message turned against Messi and against the mayor of the city, Pablo Javkin. The message said: “Messi, we are waiting for you. And Javkin is a drug dealer, so he won’t defend you.’
Messi plays for Paris Saint-Germain and is considered by many to be one of the greatest footballers in history. In Argentina he is particularly loved, especially after the victory of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022; he spends most of his time in Europe, but often returns to Rosario. Based on one Photo spread on social media by the squad, she was training regularly in France on Thursday. At the moment she has not commented.
The public prosecutor Federico Rébola he said that video surveillance images are being analyzed to try to identify the men and added that this is the first threat of its kind against Messi’s in-laws. According to Celia Arena, Minister of Justice in the province of Santa Fe, the attack was carried out by a group that would aim to intimidate the population and discourage the authorities fighting criminal violence, knowing that such an act would attract attention. In a comment on Twitter, the former Argentine president, Mauricio Macri, defined the event as “terrible” and “another signal for the national government and that of Santa Fe that it is not possible to live with drug trafficking”.
This is terrible. Another warning to the national government and to that of Santa Fe that you cannot live with the drug trafficker. It must be fought decisively. At the end of the year this begins to change. All my support to Leo, Antonela and their families.
— Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) March 2, 2023