BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian and Italian authorities said they launched two joint operations yesterday aimed at dismantling a transnational plot to transport cocaine from South America to Europe using cargo ships or airplanes.
The authorities issued 18 arrest warrants in Brazil and one in Spain against suspected members of criminal groups linked to international drug trafficking.
In Italy, police said in a statement that five people were arrested.
A source directly involved in the operation in Brazil told Reuters the main target of the operation remains at large, while the other 17 in Brazil had been detained.
The main target, which investigators indicated had ties to one of Brazil’s largest crime gangs, Primeiro Comando da Capital, commonly known as PCC, had 12 properties blocked.
In Brazil, authorities are also executing 46 search and seizure warrants at addresses in seven states. In total, authorities sought to freeze the assets of 36 people and 43 companies, according to the source involved in the operation.
The plot involves a partnership between Primeiro Comando da Capital and Italy’s most powerful mafia group, the Ndrangheta, according to the office of Brazil’s prosecutor general and a Brazilian source with knowledge of the case.
Brazilian federal police and the prosecutor general’s office allege that the criminal organization maintained a complex money laundering network which, according to estimates, made financial transactions of more than 2 billion reais ($330.4 million) between 2018 and 2022.
The Brazilian and Italian courts ordered the blocking of assets and the seizure of real estate properties worth 126 million reais, following requests from prosecutors in both countries.
The investigations show that the criminal group took advantage of Brazilian shipping infrastructure to transport large quantities of cocaine to Europe using the southern port of Paranagua.
The drugs were hidden in containers carrying ceramics, sanitary ware or wood and were destined mainly for the port of Valencia in Spain.
Some cocaine was also smuggled by private aircraft to airports in Belgium, according to authorities. Investigations show the crime network arranged for the goods where the drugs were hidden to be removed before airport inspections.
