An Argentine drug trafficking ring lured three young women to a suburban house under false pretenses last Friday, subjecting them to hours of torture and rape before killing them—a barbaric act broadcast live to a private Instagram group of about 45 viewers, authorities revealed Thursday, sparking national outrage and swift arrests.

The victims—20-year-old Brenda del Castillo and Morena Verri, along with 15-year-old Lara Gutiérrez—were last seen on CCTV climbing into a white pickup truck in Florencio Varela, south of Buenos Aires, believing they were headed to an event, Buenos Aires Security Minister Javier Alonso explained.

Their bodies turned up buried in the property's garden, where their phone signals had pinged last; the charred vehicle lay abandoned just 100 meters away. Four suspects now face charges in the slayings, tied to a Buenos Aires-based narco outfit that picked the site for its isolation.

Alonso detailed the stream as unrecorded but real-time, a taunt or signal within criminal circles that drew passive witnesses online. "They were falling into a trap set... by an international drugs trafficking gang which had hatched a plan to kill them," he said, underscoring the premeditation.

The Buenos Aires Ministry of Women and Diversity labeled it a "femicide," the starkest form of gender violence, rooted in narco brutality: "A brutal and ferocious expression of dehumanisation, cruelty, and neglect."

As investigators comb the house and truck for clues, Meta—Instagram's owner—has yet to respond to queries on the platform's safeguards against such closed-group horrors.

The case lays bare escalating narco-gender perils in Argentina, where such livestreamed atrocities amplify terror, leaving families and officials to grapple with both grief and the digital scars now etched in evidence.