HomeNewsBriefPolice in Brazil Capture Enduring Figure of LatAm Drug Trade
BRIEF

Police in Brazil Capture Enduring Figure of LatAm Drug Trade

BRAZIL / 22 SEP 2015 BY ELIJAH STEVENS EN

Police in Brazil have captured a little known figure that has played a major role in the historical development of Latin America's drug trade, and whose links to prominent drug traffickers stretch from Mexico's "El Chapo" Guzman to Colombia's Pablo Escobar.

On September 17, Brazilian authorities arrested Mario Sergio Machado Nunes, alias “Goiano,” in a luxury apartment in the coastal city of Guaruja, reported EFE. Nunes is perhaps one of the most veteran drug traffickers in the world, having been a wanted man since the 1980s when officials assert he worked directly with Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel, becoming the cartel's main contact in Brazil.

More recently, he is said to have had connections with Colombian drug lord Henry de Jesus Lopez, alias “Mi Sangre” -- who was a member of a number of drug trafficking outfits before his capture in 2012, including the Oficina de Envigado and the Urabeños -- and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.

SEE ALSO: Mi Sangre Profile

According to EFE, Goiano trafficked drugs to 27 countries in Europe and Africa -- primarily via maritime routes from the port of Santos, Brazil -- and invested in the development of technology for clandestine drug transport in containers and submarines. He is also said to have attempted to establish a private airline to transport drugs, reported Semana.

Goiano was wanted by Interpol, as well as both Brazilian and Colombian officials. He is also known as the "King of Disguises," having allegedly undergone plastic surgery in order to change his appearance.

In 2014, a two-and-a-half year investigation into Goiano’s organization led to the arrest of five suspects, although Goiano himself evaded capture.

InSight Crime Analysis

Goiano has had a long and colorful career in Latin America's drug trade, and the scale, reach, and longevity of his trafficking operations is almost unequaled.

SEE ALSO: Brazil News and Profiles

As the point man for Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel in Brazil, he helped build that country's internal market for drugs -- which has grown since the 1980s into the world's second-largest consumer of cocaine.

Yet he also played a part in Brazil's increasing role in the international drug trade, trafficking drugs to Europe, the United States, China, and parts of the Middle East. According to Semana, he was particularly focused on setting up drug operations in Africa. Indeed, over the years Brazil has become an important jumping off point for drugs headed to West Africa en route to Europe, with Brazil's Port of Santos (the largest port in Latin America) transforming into a key hub for narcotics exports.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 9 SEP 2022

Brazil's border town of Corumbá is a well-known smuggling route from Bolivia. This is unlikely to change soon.

BRAZIL / 6 OCT 2021

The scale of illegal mining on an Indigenous reserve deep in Brazil’s Amazon has grown so large that fleets of…

BRAZIL / 8 SEP 2022

Brazil's largest gang, the PCC, could be trying to take over the marijuana business in neighboring Paraguay.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…