(Rio de Janeiro) The Brazilian Federal Police arrested on Tuesday in Hungary one of the “biggest international traffickers”, nicknamed “the Brazilian Pablo Escobar”, on the run since 2020 and suspected of being at the head of a vast organization of cocaine trafficking to Europe.
Posted yesterday at 5:34 p.m.
In cooperation with Interpol, Brazilian police “confirm the arrest of Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, known as ‘Major Carvalho’, considered one of today’s biggest international traffickers,” in a statement.
According to the Brazilian press, which nicknamed him the “Pablo Escobar of Brazil”, Roberto de Carvalho, a former policeman, lived in Europe and used false documents to evade the authorities.
Arrested in Spain under a false identity for alleged drug trafficking, he was released after posting bail and forged a death certificate to escape justice, according to a TV Globo report last year.
The arrest warrant for “Major Carvalho” was issued in November 2020, in an operation that led to the seizure of “more than 500 million reais (about $100 million) from the organization criminal he was leading,” according to the Brazilian Federal Police.
The operation aimed to “financially dismantle the organizations responsible for shipping tens of tons of cocaine to Europe, using mainly Brazilian ports as a route”.
The investigation had ramifications in Colombia, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Romania and Dubai.
“The scheme used by the criminals consisted of laundering property and assets worth millions of dollars in Brazil and abroad using various front men and fictitious companies, in order to give a legal appearance for the profit obtained by traffic, ”explained the federal police.