The mega-trafficker Antônio Joaquim Mota, known as “Motinha” or “Dom”, who fled by helicopter after learning about the Federal Police (PF) operation against him last week, also has an open arrest warrant in Paraguay.
According to information from the PF, Mota has Paraguayan nationality and, if he is arrested in the neighboring country, he will be immediately extradited to serve his sentence in Brazil. He is considered a fugitive in both countries.
The open arrest warrant refers to the May escape, when the PF launched the Hélix operation against a criminal organization suspected of international trafficking in drugs and weapons. The suspect also found out about this action and fled to a farm located between Ponta Porã (MS) and Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay), according to the PF.
Antônio Joaquim Mota was the main target of an operation launched on Friday (30) to arrest him, but he found out about the action and fled the day before by helicopter, according to investigators.
In this action, six Mota security guards were arrested. The PF says they are Brazilian and foreign paramilitaries with international training and experience in wars.
The PF investigates the leak of information. The operation was carried out jointly with Paraguayan authorities with the participation of 100 police officers and Brazilian investigators do not rule out the hypothesis that the leak occurred on the other side of the border.
The PF investigates whether Mota has protection and receives privileged information in the neighboring country. He was on a rural property that stretches across both countries, between Ponta Porã and Pedro Juan Caballero.
Profile
Antônio Joaquim Mota is appointed by the PF as the current leader of the so-called “Mota clan”, a group that has more than 70 years of experience in criminality, according to investigations.
He is the third generation of a family criminal organization that has already operated in the smuggling of coffee, cigarettes, electronics and that now specializes in international drug trafficking, with great influence in Paraguay and in the border region with Brazil.
Mota even called himself “Dom”, according to the Federal Police, in reference to Dom Corleone, the head of the most powerful criminal family in the “The Godfather” trilogy.
CNN found that the investigated organization specialized in cocaine trafficking, as it is more expensive. The drug, coming from Bolivia and Colombia, is transported by plane to Paraguay and, from there, is taken by helicopter to the states of São Paulo and Paraná, from where it is dispatched to the ports of Santos (SP), the largest in the world. Brazil, and Itajaí (SC).
Mota was already arrested in the El Patrón operation in November 2019. According to the PF, the gang targeted by the operation, at the time, hid US$ 20 million, more than US$ 17 million in a bank in the Bahamas, and the rest scattered in Paraguay among money changers, exchange offices, businessmen, politicians and a lawyer.
CNN could not locate Mota’s lawyers.
Source: CNN Brasil
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