Brazilian Feds arrest 16 in anti-narcotics operation

Brazil’s Federal Police on Tuesday arrested 16 suspects as part of an investigation into a network of drug traffickers operating out of São Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.

Dubbed Operation Collateral, the investigation is going after a network of criminals who were responsible for the unjust arrest of two Brazilian women in Germany earlier this year. Kátyna Baía and Jeanne Paollini, from the central state of Goiás, were arrested for drug trafficking in Frankfurt on March 5 after German authorities found cocaine in suitcases labeled with their names.

The two women remained behind bars for 38 days and were only released after Brazilian Feds proved that the labels had been swapped and the suitcases did not belong to them. The individuals responsible for swapping out the labels were arrested at the time, but the police are now going after the big fish responsible for running the drug trafficking operation.

In a statement, the Federal Police said the network was responsible for having sent more than 120 kilograms of cocaine to Europe, citing a shipment to Portugal in October 2022 and one to France in March of this year, as well as “countless other events of international trafficking through the Guarulhos international airport.”

Feds were executing 27 search and seizure warrants and 18 preventative and temporary arrests as part of Operation Collateral, but two suspects remain on the run. Those arrested include individuals responsible for trafficking the drugs as well as those giving the orders.

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