Brazilian and Italian authorities on Tuesday launched two joint operations aimed at eliminating a scheme used to transport cocaine from South America to Europe using cargo ships or planes, Reuters reported, writes TASR.
Authorities issued 18 arrest warrants in Brazil, five in Italy and one in Spain. Arrest warrants for persons suspected of membership in criminal groups linked to the international drug trade.
The said scheme involves a partnership between one of the of the largest criminal gangs in Brazil – the Primeiro Comando da Capital, known as the PCC – and the most influential Italian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, said a source from the Brazilian prosecutor’s office familiar with the case.
Brazil’s federal police and the attorney general’s office say the group had a network of money laundering, which is estimated to have made financial transactions worth more than two billion reais (330.4 million euros) in the years 2018-22.
Based on the requests of the prosecutors in Brazil and Italy, the courts in the respective countries as part of the investigation of the case they ordered the freezing of assets and the confiscation of real estate worth 126 million reais.
The investigation revealed that the criminal group was transporting large shipments of cocaine by ship from the southern Brazilian port of Paranagua. The drugs were hidden in ceramics, sanitary ware or in a load of wood. They were headed mainly to the Spanish port of Valencia, but some of the cocaine was also smuggled aboard private planes to airports in Belgium. In these cases, the criminal network ensured that the drugs from the hiding place in the transported cargo got out before the inspection at the destination airport.
