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A 60-year-old man detained in São Paulo is suspected of being part of a network of sexual exploitation of minors. A 55-year-old woman, accused of “selling” her granddaughters, was also arrested.
The São Paulo Civil Police arrested a pilot from the airline Latam Airlines this Monday, suspected of participating in a child pornography exploitation network and rape of a vulnerable person.
According to the Civil Police, the 60-year-old man is suspected of being part of this group for at least eight years. He was detained inside an aircraft at Congonhas Airport.
According to the local press, the Latam Airlines pilot was detained by security agents when the aircraft was preparing to take off for Rio de Janeiro. The moment of arrest was recorded on video:
Sérgio Antonio Lopes, 60 years old, is suspected of frequenting hotels accompanied by minors using false identification documents. It was in these hotels that the sexual abuse was committed. He received, via Whatsapp, images of the minor victims, which would be sent by their own mothers, grandmothers and others in exchange for money, points out.
“Each image received generated payments via Pix, generally 30, 50 or 100 reais [entre 4 e 17 euros]. In some cases, he bought medicines, paid rent and even bought a television,” said the delegate.
The arrest of the suspect, who had just returned from his honeymoon with his wife, a psychologist, was carried out during the flight and already on the plane due to the difficulty in catching the suspect at home.
“He has a residence in Guararema. We couldn’t find out when he was flying or not. We chose to ask the company for a stopover and found out that he was taking a flight today. When we arrived at the airport at around 5:30 am, he was already there. When they started calling the flight, we went to ask and he was already on the plane. It was a way of trying to locate him”, said the police chief.
A 55 year old woman, suspected of receiving payments to hand over her granddaughters, aged 10, 12 and 14the pilot, was also detained. According to the police, the minors were subjected to serious situations of sexual abuse and exploitation.
Latam confirmed to the Efe news agency that it was aware of the incident that occurred this Monday, during the boarding of flight LA3900, which connects São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, in which one of its crew members was detained by the police. The company also stated that, in addition to opening an internal investigation, it made itself available to the authorities and that the flight went normallytaking off and landing at the scheduled time.
The arrests took place as part of an operation to dismantle an alleged child sex trafficking network. According to investigations, which began in October, the criminal organization was structured with division of functions, habitual activity and coordinated actions.
The organization is being investigated for crimes such as rape of a vulnerable person; facilitation of prostitution and sexual exploitation of minors and adolescents; production, storage and distribution of child pornography; repeated harassment; grooming of minors; use of false documents and coercion.
