Criminal groups dedicated to laundering money from international drug trafficking are targets of Operation Corona today (15) by the Federal Police in the states of São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco and Amazonas.
The investigations that resulted in the operation of this fourth650 kilos of cocaine were seized at the Coroa do Avião Aerodrome in Igarassu, a city located in the metropolitan region of Recife.
According to the PF, on that occasion, the pilot, co-pilot and other criminals were arrested in the act when they were unloading the drug. “The criminal group’s plan was to hide cocaine in a scrap export destined for Europe through the Port of Suape.”
With the deepening of the investigations, a criminal structure of front companies created with the purpose of moving money for transnational organized crime was discovered. The companies are spread across the country, but most of them are concentrated in municipalities in the state of São Paulo. In the first four months of 2020 alone, they moved more than BRL 116 million.
Federal police officers serve 16 search and seizure warrants and 9 preventive arrest warrants, issued by the Federal Court in Pernambuco, at addresses linked to the investigated, in cities in the four states.
The name of the operation, Corona, is a Spanish word that means crown in Portuguese and refers to the name of the airfield where the cocaine was seized in early 2020.
