RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian police on Wednesday recaptured João Filipe Barbieri, considered ‘one of the world’s biggest arms traffickers’ and who escaped from prison last November after falsifying a series of exit permits.
The arrest took place in Niteroi, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, a region with high rates of violence, especially in its poorest favelas during an operation coordinated by Rio’s Civil Police.
João Filipe Barbieri is identified as one of the world’s biggest arms traffickers and one of the main members of the gang “responsible for shipping thousands of rifles to Brazil hidden in pool heaters,” said the Rio Police in a note.
Barbieri used a fake release permit last November to leave Rio’s Bangu prison, where he had been serving a 27-year prison sentence since 2017 for international arms trafficking, among other crimes.
However, Brazilian authorities only discovered the deception in February this year, when they uncovered a criminal network that provided forged documents to inmates so they could escape.
João Filipe Barbieri is the stepson of Frederick Barbieri, a.k.a. ‘Lord of the Guns’ and who was arrested in 2018 in the United States, where he had been living since at least 2010 and was likewise convicted of international arms trafficking by the U.S. courts.
Arms trafficking in Rio de Janeiro fuels the conflicts between drug gangs and militia groups, made up of corrupt ex-police officers or active agents, for the control of various areas of the city and its metropolitan area.
Source: Diario Libre