The drug smuggling ring within Brazil’s Air Force

During the Vietnam War, American drug kingpins managed to move narcotics from Asia to New York with the help of U.S. military servicemen — using military planes. The plan, portrayed in the 2007 crime drama ‘American Gangster,’ was considered to be the largest heroin smuggling operation in U.S. history. Half a century on, the latest sting by Brazil’s Federal Police may have unveiled a similar, albeit smaller, drug-smuggling scheme.

The case began on June 26, 2019, a day that lives in infamy in the history of the Brazilian Air Force. In Seville Airport, 38-year-old Air Force Sergeant Manoel Silva Rodrigues was arrested with 39 kilos of cocaine stored in his hand luggage. He was serving as a flight attendant for the presidential convoy, being part of the backup team accompanying President Jair Bolsonaro to the G20 Summit of that year, in Osaka.

The case sparked the beginning of a long and secretive Federal Police investigation, which has now led to a new round of arrests of individuals linked to the Armed Forces. Marshals believe that...