In recent days, the Federal Police arrested Ronald Roland, a Brazilian drug trafficker accused of supplying drugs to Mexican cartels and running a gigantic scheme money laundering through shell companies.
According to the criteria of
Behind a bikini shop on the coast of São Paulo, they even bought an aircraft. In five years, according to the authorities, he managed a fortune of 5 billion reais (more than 913 billion dollars).
He had already been captured in 2019, after his then-wife revealed his location in a post on a social network.
This week’s Federal Police operation was carried out in seven states, seizing cash, jewelry, weapons, 34 vehicles, a boat and two airplanes. Eight individuals were arrested.
It was in a building in Guarujá that the Federal Police arrested Ronald Roland. He, his wife and daughter were sleeping when the agents arrived. After two years, the pursuit of Ronald ended.
Ronald Roland, who had always been reserved, caught the attention of the Federal Police when he moved to Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. A mansion in a luxury condominium in Uberlândia was the hideout of a resident who loved ostentation.
⏯️Trafficker Ronald Roland was arrested for sharing location with woman
Ronald Roland is suspected of supplying drug cartels in Mexico and of commanding a money laundering scheme with front companies pic.twitter.com/NKxz8rGhgm
— Metropolis (@Metropoles) July 8, 2024
“A person who comes home with a R$ 500,000 vehicle. A week later, with a R$ 1 million vehicle. A week later, with a R$ 800,000 vehicle. This caught the attention of the neighborhood. Who is this person who moved here?” said Ricardo Ruiz, head of the Federal Police in Uberlândia.
According to Ruiz, the objective of the operation that captured Ronald’s goal was to combat money laundering from his life of crime.
“The houses were purchased in the name of companies, whose partners were people without the minimum economic capacity to acquire real estate, vehicles, aircraft. We found partners of companies, for example, who work in a restaurant, but who are partners in several companies that moved tens of millions of reais,” said Ricardo Ruiz.
A big cog in the money laundering machinery. More than 100 companies in various sectors: construction, aviation, car rental, general trade and cryptocurrency investment.
And more than 200 people were involved, most of them front men. A huge scheme that moved more than R$ 5 billion in five years.
And how did they move these sums from one place to another? One of the reports from COAF, the federal government’s financial intelligence agency, described how the gang operated. The criminals would arrive with garbage bags full of cash.
They made fractional deposits in ATMs at a bank branch, dozens of times. When they raised suspicions, they withdrew. One of these actions occurred in the North Zone of São Paulo: R$ 60,000 divided into 20 envelopes.
A mistake that led to his capture
Andrezza de Lima Joel, Ronald Roland’s second wife, owns a bikini shop in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo.
According to the Federal Police, this company was also used in the money laundering scheme. In a single day, it received fractional deposits of R$ 200,000, made at an ATM in Foz do Iguaçu. Andrezza was also targeted by police officers this week.
Brazilian drug trafficker who lived a luxurious life and did not have to hide is imprisoned by the PF. Ronald Roland is accused of moving R$ 5 billion in international drug trafficking. According to the investigations, there was a large money laundering machine, with more than 100… pic.twitter.com/jmOEt7Hmhb
— GloboNews (@GloboNews) July 8, 2024
“What we found was the lack of economic and financial capacity of his wife, who built a bikini store that bought vehicles and airplanes,” said police chief Ricardo Luiz.
“There are bikini ads, but “Whether bikinis were enough to buy planes worth millions of reais, luxury vehicles, is another question,” commented Police Chief Ricardo Ruiz.
Andrezza used to post her private jet trips on social media. In fact, for the second time, Ronald Roland was exposed for the indiscretion of a colleague. She showed the movements of her criminal husband: Paris, Dubai, Maldives, Colombia.
In 2019, Ronald Roland was on Interpol’s red list and was arrested. His wife at the time also tagged the location where they were, in the East Zone of São Paulo, on a social network.
She ended up revealing the location of her then husband. At that time, Ronald had just undergone plastic surgery and had purple marks on his face. He was released by the court the following year, in 2020.
Criminal record
Ronald Roland, 50, has an extensive criminal record. Until the 2000s, Ronald was investigated by the Civil Police of São Paulo for crimes against the economic order:
- Tax evasion.
- Active corruption.
- Illicit association.
- Falsification.
Since 2012, as an airline pilot, he began to be monitored by the Federal Police for his involvement in international drug trafficking.
“He is a very cautious person. There were numerous PF operations investigating criminal organizations that were predominantly active in drug trafficking in South and Central America, and in Mexico, and Ronald was investigated in these operations for his association with these major drug traffickers,” explained police chief Ricardo Ruiz.
In a statement, the defense of Ronald Roland and his wife Andrezza said they will not comment at this time, as they have not had access to the entire process.
The Globe (Brazil) / GDA
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*This content was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from O Globo (GDA) and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.
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