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SĂ´nia Sayara has gained a sizable following online as a singer of sertanejo, a Brazilian genre often compared to country music. But police suspect that behind her public profile, she has links to a major drug trafficking group.
The aspiring singer’s real identity has not previously been revealed, but her true name is Nélida Sonia Sánchez Garcete, according to court documents obtained by OCCRP.
She is being detained while police investigate whether she was helping coordinate operations for a drug trafficking organization founded by her brother, Carlos RubĂ©n Sánchez Garcete, the documents show.Â
Both siblings were born in Paraguay, where her brother was a politician. Sánchez’s brother — who was also known as “Chicharõ” in reference to a style of Paraguayan fried pork — was murdered in a hail of gunfire in his home country in August 2021.
After he was killed, leadership of the drug gang allegedly fell to Sánchez’s husband, José Roberto de Oliveira Lima, according to the court records, which include police reports, judicial rulings, and filings from the federal prosecution office.
Lima is now on the run, along with two more suspects, police say.
Sánchez was arrested on May 28 at her home outside Mogi Guaçu, a city in central São Paulo state. Five other suspected members of the organization were arrested the same day in what police dubbed Operation Tango Down.
Lawyers for Lima and Sánchez did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
Aside from her budding singing career, Sanchez owned a clothing store in Mogi Guaçu, according to the court documents. Meanwhile, police allege she was assisting her brother, and then her husband, in the drug business.
The organization specialized in smuggling cocaine and cannabis by land and air across the border from Paraguay into the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, said Carlos Henrique D’Ângelo, regional superintendent of the Federal Police.
“The investigation uncovered repeated and high-impact involvement in cross-border drug trafficking,” he told OCCRP, adding that police had seized two aircraft in addition to large quantities of cocaine and marijuana from the group.
The investigation into the organization began in June 2020, after police seized 200 kilograms of cocaine from a helicopter in the city of NaviraĂ, in Mato Grosso do Sul near the Paraguayan border.
Then, in January 2023, Brazil’s Air Force intercepted an aircraft entering from Paraguay without a flight plan. After being approached by a fighter jet, the pilot made an emergency landing near the small city of Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo in São Paulo state and fled, abandoning 528 kilograms of cocaine.
Although the plane was registered in someone else’s name, investigators suspect it really belonged to Sánchez’s brother, the murdered alleged gang leader known as “Chicharõ.”
On the ground, the group moved cocaine and marijuana hidden in timber shipments using fake invoices from sawmills tied to the suspects, according to court documents. Police have arrested the owner of one company accused of issuing false invoices to mask drug shipments.
