Argentine Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado requested the Paraguayan judiciary extradite former Senator Edgardo Kueider, who was expelled from Congress last week after being arrested for trying to enter that country with US$200,000 of undeclared cash.

Aside from his legal problems in Paraguay, Kueider also has them in Argentina. Arroyo Salgado has been investigating him since July for illicit enrichment and money laundering. As part of that case, the judge requested not only Kueider be extradited, but also his secretary Iara Guinsel Costa. Both of them are currently under home arrest in an apartment owned by Kueider in Asunción.

Last Thursday, Arroyo Salgado sent Upper House head Victoria Villarruel a formal request to deprive Kueider of the legal protection national lawmakers have during the duration of their term. 

The judge also ordered several searches in properties allegedly owned by Kueider in Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos. Some of them turned out to be not related to him at all.

The Senate received the legal request on the same day it was set to debate whether they would expel him or not. Kueider ultimately lost his legal protection — known in Argentina as fueros — after his fellow senators voted him out. Arroyo Salgado reportedly issued a national and international arrest order the next day, to ensure his detention in case Paraguay released him.

On Tuesday, the judge also requested the Paraguayan judiciary seize Kueider and Guinsel Costa’s phones and that it search the apartment where they are staying.

The extradition request must follow a series of steps. First, the Argentine Foreign Ministry has to send the judge’s request to its counterpart in Paraguay, which must then pass it on to the judiciary.

Paraguay’s authorities could decide to move forward with their own investigation before extraditing Kueider. Paraguayan prosecutor Alcides Giménez Zorrilla said it could take between four and six months to gather all the necessary evidence and investigate the former senator.

Arroyo Salgado started investigating Kueider in July after news outlets Análisis and El Disenso reported irregularities with three apartments he owns in Paraná, Entre Ríos. The journalistic investigation revealed Kueider has at least three apartments in Paraná, Entre Ríos, under the name of a ghost company called Betail S.A., which has no real economic operations. Earlier this year, Kueider named Guinsel Costa as the person in charge of the apartment’s expenses, instead of Betail S.A.

The company is also being investigated for money laundering and illicit association, alongside Kueider’s associates Javier Rubel and Rodolfo Daniel González. The latter is the owner of the SUV Kueider and his secretary used to try to enter Paraguay from Brazil. His properties were also searched last week but police didn’t find him in any of them. 

González, who works at the National Congress Library, finally presented himself at the Concordia prosecution office in Entre Ríos, which is also investigating Kueider for illicit enrichment.