A drug trafficker killed a grandmother, daughter, and grandkids in a car crash after posting photos drinking in a club.
Axel Adrián Araneda rear-ended a Ford EcoSport that had stopped on the roadside shortly after 7 am on Friday (21 Nov).
The impact sent the car more than 40 yards down the tarmac before it erupted in flames.
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Inside were Liliana Cocuzza, 60; her two grandchildren, aged six and four; and their aunt, 32-year-old Karina Gutiérrez Cocuzza.
All four died either instantly from the force of the collision or moments later from smoke inhalation.
The children’s grandfather, Justo Pastor Gutiérrez, had stepped out to adjust luggage on the roof rack and survived.
The 65-year-old was rushed in shock to Allen, in Argentina’s northern Patagonia, where he remains hospitalised.
Prosecutors say Araneda, 29, was driving at well over 100 mph while drunk and with traces of drugs in his system.
He had posted a selfie from the wheel of his powerful, unregistered Volkswagen Amarok minutes before the crash.
Earlier, he had uploaded a series of social media Stories from a nightclub in nearby Cipolletti, where CCTV shows he entered at 3 am and left at 5 am.
Subsequent searches of his home reportedly uncovered firearms, and local media describe him as a convicted drug trafficker.
The victims had been heading to Las Grutas for a weekend at the beach, as reported by NeedToKnow.
Liliana Cocuzza, from Catriel, was a highly regarded physician.
Río Negro Governor Alberto Weretilneck called her “an outstanding professional greatly loved by her colleagues at the hospital and by the entire community of Catriel”.
Catriel Mayor Daniela Silvina Salzotto praised her work “with mental health patients and the elderly”.
Araneda remains in custody, charged with quadruple homicide with aggravating factors.
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