Brazil Federal Police Bust Ecstasy Ring in Operation Hipster

By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Police (PF) in Brazil launched Operation Hipster today (Wednesday, October 17th) from Curitiba, to arrest those responsible for the production and distribution of ecstasy in several states of Brazil.

The name ‘Operation Hipster’ is a not-so-subtle allusion to the target of the operation. Some suspects were arrested and taken to the Federal Police station in Curitiba, where they will remain in custody of the court.

They could be sentenced to more than twenty years in prison according to a report by Agencia Brasil. In total, 25 police officers are serving five search warrants and four temporary arrest warrants, including a university student.

According to the Federal Police, the investigation began on the basis of information on the purchase of a press for the production of drugs and several postal consignments containing ecstasy tablets at a post office in Curitiba. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the United States has supported the investigation and the operation, according to police.

In two months the operation found at least eighty envelopes were sent, and the current bank account of the suspect surpassed R$500,000 during a period of ten months.

An American expatriate who lived in Rio for years, but wished to remain anonymous, explained the by far ecstasy and MDMA is much less prevalent in Brazil than cocaine. “It’s not nearly as easy to find as [cocaine] but it’s there if you ask people in the scene.”

Last year in a different story, police in Rio seized approximately R$35,000 in cash, nearly 1,500 ecstasy tablets and several packages of another drug known as MD (MDMA), worth approximately R$80,000.