Brazil’s Federal Police and a federal organized-crime prosecution unit arrested four people in an operation targeting an alleged transnational money-laundering and logistics network used to finance restricted-use firearms and drugs for a criminal group based in Rio de Janeiro.
The Federal Police said Operation Red Fox was carried out on June 20 and 21 with the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, known as Gaeco/MPF. The measures were authorized by the 5th Federal Criminal Court in Rio de Janeiro and included preventive arrest warrants, asset freezes, seizure and unavailability orders, and the suspension of companies described by investigators as shell firms or pass-through accounts.
According to the Federal Police, the investigation focuses on financial and logistics cells suspected of moving, hiding and disguising illicit funds used to buy restricted firearms and drugs from abroad. Authorities say the supplies were intended for the Rio group and for operations in other Brazilian states.
Two of the suspects were located in Suriname with support from local authorities, including the National Security Directorate and the Judicial Intervention Team. A man and a woman were detained there, deported to Brazil and arrested by Federal Police after arriving in Belém, in the northern state of Pará.
The man is under investigation as a financial operator who allegedly moved more than R$150 million during the period under review, with activity in border areas and transfers linked to weapons purchases, the Federal Police said. The woman is described by investigators as a logistics and financial operator whose trips to Suriname coincided with periods of suspicious financial movement.
Two other suspects were arrested in Brazil. One was detained in Rio de Janeiro and is suspected of using personal and business accounts to spread illicit funds and make payments to suppliers. Another was arrested in Tabatinga, Amazonas, in Brazil’s triple-border region with Colombia and Peru, and is linked to a company allegedly used in financial flows connected to transnational drug and arms logistics.
The police statement said the group used shell companies, nominees, split deposits, Pix instant-payment transfers, pass-through accounts and transactions inconsistent with the suspects’ declared economic capacity. Investigators say those mechanisms helped hide the origin of the money and pay suppliers in Brazil and abroad.
Federal courts authorized the blocking, seizure and unavailability of assets, rights and values up to a limit of nearly R$500 million. Authorities said the goal is to weaken the organization’s economic capacity, prevent assets from being dissipated and interrupt financing for alleged criminal activity.
Poder360, citing the police operation, reported the same four arrests and said the Federal Police and Gaeco/MPF are still working to locate fugitives, deepen financial and telematics analysis, and identify other members of the group.
A Tribuna RJ reported additional allegations not detailed in the Federal Police release, including that the network supplied weapons to the Comando Vermelho, one of Rio de Janeiro’s main criminal factions, and that 13 preventive arrest warrants were issued in total, with nine still open. The outlet also reported that one suspect allegedly took part in the purchase of ten AK-47 rifles and named alleged faction figures still sought by investigators. Those claims remain attributed to A Tribuna RJ’s account of the investigation.
The Federal Police said the investigation remains ongoing.