Crew member from Brazilian president's plane detained in Seville with 39 kilos of cocaine

[sandensea]

The Spanish Civil Guard on Tuesday arrested a military crew member from a plane used by the Brazilian Air Force to fly President Jair Bolsonaro on international trips.

Sources from the Civil Guard confirmed that the man was in possession of 39 kilos (86 pounds) of cocaine when he was detained.

The arrest was made when the plane in which the suspect was flying made a stopover at around 2pm at Seville airport in the south of Spain.

The arrested man, a 38-year-old petty officer whose identity has not been supplied, got off the plane with a suit bag and an item of hand luggage. When Spanish officers checked the bag, they found it filled with 39 kilo packets of cocaine. “It wasn’t even hidden among clothes,” the same sources explained.

The aircraft was headed to Japan, where it was due to be used as a reserve plane for the Brazilian leader, who was to fly to the same destination in another aircraft to take part in the G-20 meeting taking place this week in Osaka.

The arrest is a blow for the right-wing Bolsonaro, who campaigned last year on toughening drug laws - including reinstating the death penalty, even for non-capital crimes - and who frequently praises Brazil’s armed forces.

At: https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/06/26/inenglish/1561557312_000835.html

Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a recent Evangelical rally.

Today's arrest of a Brazilian presidential aircraft crew member carrying pure cocaine with a street value of around $1 million, contrasts sharply with Bolsonaro's law-and-order bluster.

[Judi Lynn]

1. The petty officer may have thought being in the President's retinue would mean diplomatic immunity.

There's no doubt at all the people the drug mule consorts with are far, far more wholesome than Bolsonaro's fundie sociopath supporters. Even the assassins!

I wonder if Bolsonaro can walk down a street in Brazil and shoot down someone and no one would do anything about it, like Trump. Could he be Teflon Jair?

We know his Fundamentalist fans will support him, since he has given them prominence.

Very amusing learning Mr. Law and Order's own escort was smuggling cocaine on the job. Good one!

[Judi Lynn]

2. Folha: Sergeant Arrested with 39 kilos of Cocaine Embarrasses Bolsonaro Administration

Bolsonaro said that episode is unacceptable

Jun.27.2019 2:18PM

Gustavo Uribe
Fábio Fabrini

Air Force second sergeant Manoel Silva Rodrigues, 38, was arrested in Seville, Spain, with 39 kg of cocaine in a suitcase and now the case is generating international embarrassment for president Jair Bolsonaro and the Armed Forces.

He was part of the team that supports the entourage of President Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) on his trip to the G20 summit in Japan.

The military has made at least 29 trips in Brazil and abroad since 2011, several of them with the president's staff.



Air Force second sergeant Manoel Silva Rodrigues.

The president said the episode is unacceptable. The deputy, Hamilton Mourão, who holds the presidency temporarily, called the military a "qualified mule," alluding to people hired by traffickers to transport drugs.

More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2019/06/sergeant-arrested-with-39-kilos-of-cocaine-embarrasses-bolsonaro-administration.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen