Sergeant Fernando Parizotti de Souza Pimentel, 36, of the 6th Military Police Battalion (São Bernardo do Campo, SP) is charged with alleged involvement with the former Prime Minister of Mato Grosso do Sul, Major Sérgio Roberto de Carvalho, the “Brazilian Escobar”. identifies the world’s largest drug dealers.
Pimentel was arrested by federal police on July 13 this year during Operation Maritimum, which took place in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceará and Pará. 46 arrest warrants and 90 search and seizure warrants were issued.
The 2nd Federal Criminal Court of Natal ordered the preventive detention of Pimentel. He is being held in Romão Gomes military prison in Água Fria, north of São Paulo. The corporal received a vote of arrest in the battalion in which he acted.
Attorney Gilberto Quintanilha Pucci, Pimentel’s defense attorney, said his client was innocent, had never been involved in drug trafficking, let alone linked to the criminal organization, and that he would prove all of this at trial.
Pucci stated that his client graduated from the military police in 2020 and went to Pará to help his brother Tiago in a transport company. The lawyer added that the deal didn’t work out and the sergeant returned to São Paulo in 2021 and resumed his duties in the prime minister.
According to Pucci, the federal police accuse Pimentel of having set up a base for distributing drugs in the transport company. However, the lawyer points out that the company was founded in 2018 and his client went there two years later without ever dealing with drug trafficking or anything illegal. Tiago was already on the run.
The name Operação Maritimum is a reference to the workings of the criminal organization, which exported cocaine to Europe by sea transport via Brazilian ports, mainly Santos, Salvador and Natal.
Federal police reported that the investigation began in 2021 and that R$169.6 million was frozen in the defendants’ bank accounts. At the beginning of the operation, the agents seized eight tons of drugs.
Major Carvalho was arrested in Hungary
According to the federal police, three of the largest drug dealers operating in Brazil were identified during the investigation. They were the recipients of the drugs. One of them is Major Carvalho. He was arrested in Hungary on June 22 this year. The names of the other two have not been released.
Major Carvalho is called the “Brazilian Escobar” in Europe, after the Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar. According to the PF, Carvalho commanded a criminal organization responsible for shipping 45 tons of cocaine to Europe.
The drug, worth BRL 2.25 billion, was transported to the ports of Antwerp (Belgium), Gioia Tauro and Livorno (Italy), Hamburg (Germany), Barcelona and Algeciras (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) and Havre as of 2017 (France).
The Brazilian judiciary is demanding the extradition of Major Carvalho. According to unofficial information, the “Brazilian Escobar” can also be jailed in Spain, where he has been facing charges since August 2018, when he was accused of being the owner of 1,700 kg of cocaine seized on a ship.