Army Officer in Bolsonaro’s Delegation Gets Six Years’ Imprisonment in Spain

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian military officer member of the Brazilian President’s delegation arrested at Seville airport carrying 39 kilos of cocaine agreed to serve a six-year prison sentence for smuggling and pay a two million euro (R$9.5 million) fine.

According to the Efe news agency, the court completed the proceedings it had forwarded for the sentence to be read, and the Prosecutor’s Office has reduced the initial request of eight years’ imprisonment and a four million euro fine after the Brazilian sergeant acknowledged the illegalities committed and declared himself “deeply repentant”.

On June 26th, 2019, the Spanish police detained the Brazilian military officer member of President Jair Bolsonaro’s delegation to the G20 summit in Japan, after seizing 39 kilos of cocaine in his luggage.

The representative of the Prosecutor’s Office stressed that he found the defendant to be “sincere” and his defense counsel agreed with the change in the indictment and the corresponding reduction in the requested sentence.

In front of the judge, the sergeant admitted that he was carrying the cocaine in his luggage and that the drugs had been delivered to him in Brazil.

“The person who delivered the drugs told me that they were bound for Switzerland and that I should introduce them to Europe,” explained the defendant, adding that his mission was to go to a mall “around three or four o’clock in the afternoon” on June 25th, 2019, to hand the cocaine over to another man he did not know.

“I had to go in disguised clothing and a green shirt, and the other person would identify me through a photograph,” he said, quoted by news agency Efe.

According to the defendant, who is also the target of an expulsion proceeding by the Brazilian Army, it was “the first and only time in his life” that he “mistakenly did something like this”.

“I was experiencing economic difficulties. I’ve been in the Army for 20 years and I’ve never been involved in any case, but a military officer in Brazil doesn’t earn a good salary. I always buy things in my travels, like cell phones, and I sell them to earn something extra”, he said.

The Civil Guards who seized the drugs also appeared in court and agreed that the defendant explained to them at the time that the substance “was cheese,” having opened his luggage because it is illegal to introduce animal foodstuffs from non-EU countries, adding that the “bricks” containing the drugs were “stacked like an encyclopedia”.

“I am deeply sorry. I ask the State and the Spanish people to forgive me for bringing this into their country,” said the defendant, who agreed that “the punishment is fair” and that after serving the sentence he will return to his country to be with his family and try to find a new job.

The cocaine, 80 percent pure and valued at 1.4 million euros (almost R$7 million), was intercepted during a control check on the luggage of the 39-year-old officer who was part of a delegation following Jair Bolsonaro.

At the time, the arrest led the Brazilian government to change the stopover point of the President’s plane, originally scheduled for Seville, to Lisbon. The President was on his way to Osaka, Japan, where a G20 meeting was held.