Brazil police probe money laundering in int’l drug trafficking

Criminal rings dedicated to laundering money from international drug trafficking are being targeted by Operation Corona, launched today (15) by Brazil’s Federal Police in the states of São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco, and Amazonas.

The probes that led up to the operation started in 2020, after some 650 kilos of cocaine were seized at the Coroa do Avião airfield in Igarassu, a city in the metropolitan region of Recife.

On the occasion, the pilot, copilot, and other criminals were arrested in flagrante delicto while unloading the drugs, the police said. “The criminal group's plan aimed to hide the cocaine along with an outbound shipment of scrap material headed for Europe through the Port of Suape.”

As the investigations went on, a criminal network of front companies created for the purpose of trade in money for transnational organized crime was uncovered. The firms are spread across the country, but most are located in São Paulo state. In the first four months of 2020 alone, more than BRL 116 million was found to have circulated.

Agents are carrying out 16 search and seizure warrants and nine warrants for preventive arrest, issued by federal courts in Pernambuco, with addresses linked to the individuals under investigation, in cities across the four states.

The operation was named after the airfield where the cocaine was seized back in 2020. Corona is Spanish for “crown.”