Brazil-Italy cocaine smuggling probe targets over 20 people in three countries

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By Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian and Italian authorities said they launched two joint operations on Tuesday aimed at dismantling a scheme to send cocaine from South America to Europe using cargo ships or airplanes.

The authorities issued 18 arrest warrants in Brazil and one in Spain against suspected members of criminal groups linked to international drug trafficking.

In Italy, police said in a statement that five people were arrested.

The scheme involves a partnership between one of Brazil's largest crime gangs, Primeiro Comando da Capital - commonly known as PCC - and Italy's most powerful mafia group, the Ndrangheta, according to the office of Brazil's prosecutor general and a Brazilian source with knowledge of the case.

Brazilian federal police and the prosecutor general's office allege that the criminal organization maintained a complex money laundering network which, according to estimates, made financial transactions of more than 2 billion reais ($330.4 million) between 2018 and 2022.

The Brazilian and Italian courts ordered the blocking of assets and the seizure of real estate properties worth 126 million reais, following requests from prosecutors in both countries. Brazilian authorities also carried out 46 search and seizure warrants.

The investigations show that the criminal group took advantage of Brazilian shipping infrastructure to transport large quantities of cocaine to Europe using the southern port of Paranagua.

The drugs were hidden in containers carrying ceramics, sanitary ware or wood and were destined mainly to the port of Valencia in Spain.

Some cocaine was also smuggled by private aircraft to airports in Belgium, according to authorities. Their investigations show the crime network arranging for the goods in which the drugs were hidden to be removed before airport inspections.

($1 = 6.0534 reais)

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini in Rome; Writing by Isabel Teles; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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