Brazil launches crackdown on international cocaine trade

In collaboration with Interpol, the Federal Police of Brazil today (Sep 20) launched operation Duplo Risco (“double risk”), aimed at dismantling transnational drug trafficking organizations. Efforts have had the support of police bodies in Spain, Switzerland, and Portugal.

Seven preventive arrest warrants are being served in Brazil, three arrest warrants in Europe (two in Spain, one in Portugal), and 80 search and seizure orders in the Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo—in addition to orders to block bank accounts and seize property and luxury vehicles.

The investigation began in 2017 and cast light on the workings of each of the crimes committed, from recruiting people, stashing drugs in suitcases, and booking tickets and hotel rooms to delivering illicit substances to dealers overseas, the agents declared.

“The recruited people were prepared to pass themselves off as tourists and carry the drugs abroad, especially to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Sometimes, the criminal organizations convinced them to take their own underage children with them on these trips, as another way to evade law enforcement.”

Also according to the investigators, the criminal groups co-opted young people with no criminal history and low income, under promise of easy and exorbitant profits, deceiving them with the possibility of trips to Europe with expenses paid, including clothes.

The suspects will answer for the crimes of transnational drug trafficking, criminal organization, and money laundering, with sentences that can add up to 33 years in prison.