The Peruvian Home Office reported on Tuesday the capture of a Peruvian and an Argentinean wanted for the brutal murder of three young women in a Buenos Aires slum, apparently in a settling of scores by a drug gang.

The detainees are Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano, a 20-year-old Peruvian, and Matías Ozorio, a 28-year-old Argentine, the Interior Ministry's press office told The Associated Press.

With these two arrests, the number of Argentine and Peruvian detainees in this case, which has had a strong social impact in Argentina due to the brutality of the crimes, rises to nine.

Valverde was taken off a truck by agents on a road in southern Lima that was blocked by artisanal fishermen amid demands from their sector. He gave his full identification to the anti-drug police.

Earlier, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich confirmed on social media the arrest of Ozorio in Lima, ‘in a joint operation by the Peruvian National Police and Interpol of the PFA (Argentine Federal Police)’.

Ozorio was allegedly the lieutenant of Janzen Valverde Victoriano, nicknamed ‘Pequeño J’ (Little J), who is believed to be the leader of a drug gang operating out of a poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

According to the Argentine justice system's hypothesis, he gave the order to execute Morena Verdi and Brenda Del Castillo, both 20, and Lara Gutiérrez, 15, on 20 September.

The girls were found dead the following Wednesday, buried in the garden of a house in Florencio Varela, 26 kilometres south of Buenos Aires.

According to autopsies, the three young women suffered various forms of torture before being killed in what appears to have been an ambush.

According to the authorities, the crimes were an act of revenge by a gang of drug traffickers made up of Argentinians and Peruvians.

Ozorio was captured in northern Lima, outside a shopping centre. In a video released by the Peruvian police, Ozorio stated that a week ago ‘I was tricked into coming (to Peru) by some drug traffickers to whom I owed money’. He explained that he fled Argentina across the border with Paraguay and then crossed illegally into Peruvian territory.

AP Video shot by Mauricio Muñoz