Brazilian drug lord imprisoned in Brasilia after arrest in Bolivia

Audio By Carbonatix

By Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) -The leader of Brazilian organized crime syndicate PCC has been jailed in a maximum-security prison in Brasilia after his arrest in Bolivia over the weekend, officials in Brazil said on Monday.

Drug-trafficker Marcos Roberto de Almeida, known as Tuta, was expelled from Bolivia after negotiations between the two countries so that Brazil could enforce his 12-year prison sentence for conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering, Brazil’s minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, said.

Almeida was arrested in Bolivia when he tried to renew his foreign registration using a false Brazilian document. He had been on the run for five years and Interpol had issued a notice for his arrest. 

Almeida was identified through biometrics after investigators cross-referenced the Federal Police and Interpol databases. The PCC leader was then handed over to the Federal Police in the border town of Corumba, from where he was taken to Brasilia in a police aircraft.

Almeida is being held in the same federal penitentiary as another PCC leader, Marcos Camacho, known as Marcola, officials said, adding that there will be no contact between the two associates.

“The penitentiary (in Brasilia) is the safest,” said Lewandowski, referring to the Penitenciaria Federal de Brasilia. “There is no danger of contact between them and other gang members. Such contact is impossible.” 

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Editing by Manuela Andreoni and Matthew Lewis)