Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa said on Tuesday he is going to put “speculators” in jail, referring to the alleged authors of the run on the currency that took the peso to 1,000 units to the US dollar in the informal market — a 25% slump in two days.

“I have a clear idea of who those four or five people playing arbitrage are,” Massa said in a meeting with businesspeople of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC, by the Spanish initials). “Last time their boss fled to Uruguay, this time I am going to make sure that he goes to jail,” he claimed, without specifying who he meant. Asked by the Herald, sources in the Economy Ministry did not confirm who the minister referred to.

Massa also said that, even if he doesn’t become Argentina’s next president, he would see to it that those speculators are imprisoned. “I can win or lose an election because that is secondary,” he said, “but rest assured that between now and December 10 I will see to it that these four or five rogues are put in jail.”

“I won’t stop until I see them in jail,” he said.

According to a CAC press release, the chamber’s president Natalio Mario Grinman handed Massa a document with public policy proposals developed by the institution.

Meanwhile, Security Minister Aníbal Fernández posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that inspectors of the Federal Administration of Public Income (AFIP, by its Spanish acronym), together with officers from the Federal Police and Customs, carried out an inspection in informal exchange houses in the Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires to stop blue dollar operations. 

When consulted about the raids, the AFIP did not comment and the Security Ministry did not respond. Official Customs press told the Herald they took part in the operation in an auxiliary role.

The raids were reported by local media as having started at midday and continuing until past 2 p.m on Tuesday. One hour later, the city block mentioned by Fernández in his post was lined with at least four informal dollar sellers freely offering to buy the greenback.