Brazil Cattle Linked to Accused Drug Trafficker Sold to Major Companies
17 AUG 2021 BY ANNA BEATRIZ ANJOS, BRUNO FONSECA, CLARISSA LEVY, RAFAEL OLIVEIRA AND THIAGO DOMENICI*
João Soares Rocha, 64, has been identified by the Brazilian police as the ringleader of an international cocaine trafficking network. Between 2017 and 2018, the group led by Rocha transported eight tons of cocaine abroad and received at least $3.4 million by way of payment, according to investigations that formed the basis of the Federal Police’s Operation Flak. Rocha was charged with international drug trafficking, criminal association with drug trafficking, and undermining air transport safety, among other crimes.
Soares Rocha, alias "Rochinha" or “Joãozinho Pé de Cobra” (“Lil’ Joe Snake Foot”), also became a “narco-rancher” – a mixture of a drug trafficker and a cattle breeder – active mainly in the northern state of Pará, where his family owns more than ten rural estates. On top of the illicit origins of these properties, some of their lands overlap with areas dedicated to agrarian reforms and even environmental protection.
Investigations into the group suggest that Rocha made huge sums of money in trafficking narcotics and reinvested part of the profits in purchasing cattle that would later be sold to slaughterhouses. According to Marcos Camargo, president of the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts (APCF), this practice is commonly employed to launder money, especially in cattle-rearing states.
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Since an investigation by Federal Police did not seek to discover which slaughterhouses the cattle were sold to, Agência Pública traced the path of cattle from eight farms linked to Rocha that were investigated and marked for asset seizure as part of Operation Flak.
Guides to Animal Transit (Guia de Trânsito Animal - GTA) are documents needed to move livestock. Examples obtained by Agência Pública show that, between January 2018 and July 2020, JBS and Frigol – two giants of Brazil’s meatpacking industry – received 2,505 animals for slaughter from two of Rocha's farms.
More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/brazil-cattle-linked-drug-trafficker-sold-to-major-companies/