The Federal Police executed several arrest and search and seizure warrants today (1) in Bahia and São Paulo, as part of Operation Decontamination. The objective is to dismantle a criminal organization that sent cocaine in containers to Europe through the Port of Salvador.
Deputy Rodrigo Motta de Andrade said that, of the eight arrest warrants served today, six people were arrested. “Our goal is to identify other people who are involved in this group. We still do not know who were responsible for receiving the drug in Europe and we want to identify other people in Brazil involved in the criminal organization,” he said.
The organization co-opted port officials to clandestinely insert the drug into containers that were to be transported to the European continent by ships.
Rodrigo Andrade said that, in Salvador, two vehicles were seized today, one of which is a luxury vehicle, and the other that was probably used to take the drug to the Port of Salvador. The delegate also said that R$50,000 and 50 kilos of cocaine were seized, in addition to a laser printing machine, which would be used to manufacture seals used in the containers. In the city of Salto, in São Paulo, R$270,000 and US$73,000 were seized, in addition to documents used by the gang. Weapons were seized in both Bahia and São Paulo.
Federal police, with the support of the Military Police of Bahia, carried out 12 search and seizure warrants and eight preventive arrest warrants in Salvador, Feira de Santana/BA, Lauro de Freitas/BA, Sorocaba/SP, Salto/SP, Santos and Sao Vicente/SP. The Federal Court also determined the blocking of bank accounts held by nine investigated.
Since the beginning of the investigations, which began in September 2019, together with the Federal Revenue Service, six cocaine seizures have been carried out in Brazil and abroad, totaling about 3.5 tons of the drug. The last apprehension took place in September last year, when an employee of the Container Terminal at the Port of Salvador and two other employees of outsourced companies were caught red-handed by federal police when they were inserting 165 kilos of cocaine into a container that would be destined for Europe.
Those involved will answer for the crimes of international drug trafficking.
“Our work will not stop at the seizure of narcotics. We want to identify all those involved in the crimes, whether sending, transporting, or who will sell this drug”, said delegate Rodrigo Andrade.
