Federal officers arrest suspect in operation investigating international drug trafficking crime | Tocantins

A 36-year-old man was arrested by the Federal Police (PF) for involvement in an international drug trafficking scheme, investigated in the Rota Caipira operation. The arrest was authorized by the 1st Federal Court of the Judiciary Subsection of Araguaína and the federal officers served a warrant in Guarulhos (SP), this Thursday (28).

The man was indicted by the PF and was allegedly involved in a crime investigated in the operation launched in April 2023 in Tocantins and 12 other states. At the time, more than 200 arrest warrants were served and the police seized large amounts of money and even an aircraft that would be used to transport cocaine from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia to Brazil.

The circumstances of the arrest and the man’s name were not released. But the PF informed that the person under investigation who is temporarily arrested must answer for belonging to a criminal organization, international drug trafficking and money laundering.

He was sent to a unit of the local prison system, where he is at the disposal of the Judiciary.

Operation Rota Caipira was launched on April 26 in Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Mato Grosso, Piauí, Rondônia, Roraima, São Paulo, Amazonas, Tocantins, Maranhão, Ceará and Goiás.

At the time, 195 warrants were issued by the Court, including 28 for preventive arrest and 95 search and seizure orders. In addition to the judicial seizure of three rural properties, seizure of 16 aircraft linked to the scheme and orders to block up to R$300 million from those investigated. Businesspeople from Tocantins are also among those investigated.

The PF in Araguaína discovered that the criminal organization acquired cocaine outside the country and transported it through a complex aerial structure to strategic points located in Pará, Tocantins and Maranhão.

Initially, the final destination of the shipments were the northeastern capitals, such as São Luís (MA), Teresina (PI) and Fortaleza (CE). The police do not rule out that the drug was also sent to European countries.

The police reported that the investigation began in November 2020, with an exchange of information between the Federal Police and the Military Police of Pará, after the seizure of 815 kg of cocaine in Tucumã (PA).