Brazil Police Bust Drug Ring Smuggling Cocaine to Europe

Published: 05 September 2017

COT 6883607046

Brazilian Federal Police (Photo: André Gustavo Stumpf, CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Sophie Balay

Brazilian Federal Police arrested on Monday 79 suspects and raided 190 locations in a crackdown on a drug-trafficking syndicate that tried to ship more than six tons of pure cocaine to European cities over the past year.

More than 800 federal police officers in five states and Brazil's federal district seized drugs, weapons and jewelery during the raids.

The gang stored drugs that came from producing countries on several locations in Sao Paulo and shipped them from there to European cities.

The six tons of cocaine were seized since August last year – some during the 14 raids the Brazilian authorities conducted and some during interceptions of shipments that were already on their way to ports in Belgium, England, Italy and Spain and that the Brazilians had informed European authorities about.

The operation, dubbed “Operation Brabo,” is the result of a collaboration with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.