Brazil Hits Drug Networks in Multi-State Raids as Rio Burns Record Haul

Overview

• Federal police executed 27 arrest warrants and 42 searches across Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Mato Grosso do Sul on Wednesday, with judges freezing up to R$61 million and about 160 officers taking part.
• Investigators say the group ran long convoys on little‑used rural roads known as the rota caipira, used scout cars, talked over satellite internet, and carried extra fuel to avoid stops.
• More than 95% of the targets were found, three remain at large, and officers in Uberlândia seized over 20 luxury cars as they also detained model Sara Monteiro on a temporary order tied to the ring’s finance arm.
• In a separate Rio operation, police began burning part of the record 48 tonnes of marijuana at a steel plant in Santa Cruz under a heavy escort that included armored aircraft, road blocks, and two truckloads guarded by 46 military police and 22 civil police.
• The Rio stash was found April 8 inside a concrete cistern bunker in Nova Holanda by a police dog, while the Minas probe links suspects to about 5.9 tonnes seized, signaling a broader push to strip traffickers of stockpiles and laundered funds.