Legendary soccer star Lionel Messi finds himself in a potentially dangerous situation after receiving a threatening letter shortly after gunmen fired shots at a grocery store owned by his in-laws.
Reports state that two individuals shot twelve rounds into the Unico supermarket in Rosario, Argentina in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the police.
As the authorities investigated the scene of the crime, they found a message written on a cardboard slab which said “Messi, we’re waiting for you. [Mayor Pablo] Javkin is also a drug trafficker, so he won’t take care of you.”
A preliminary investigation has begun according to local prosecutor Federico Rébola. Rosario’s mayor Pablo Javkin also made a public appearance at the crime scene where he made a speech chastising federal authorities for not doing enough to combat drug related crime in his town.
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“I doubt everyone, even those who are supposed to protect us,” said Javkin. “Where are the ones who need to take care of us?”
“It’s clear that those who have the weapons and have the possibility of investigating the criminals aren’t doing it, and it’s very easy for any gang to carry out something like this.”
While suspects have not been identified, local authorities are claiming that the shooting was connected to an organized crime ring.
“With the mafia attack on the Roccuzzo family’s [Messi’s in-laws] business, knowing that it will an event of global significance, the am is to instill terror in the population and unease in those of us who are in the battle against criminal violence. It is neither more nor less, the definition of terrorism” tweeted Celia Arena, the justice minister for the province which Rosario falls under.
Just back in December, Messi brought Argentina’s team to their first World Cup championship in four decades. Although his has a home located in Rosario where the shooting of the grocery store took place, he is often overseas competing or for other business.
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