Operation Mirage: five Brazilians arrested in Canindeyú with links to PCC and tirzepatide trafficking
The National Police arrested five Brazilian citizens in La Paloma del Espíritu Santo and seized an arsenal. Authorities are investigating links to the PCC and trafficking in counterfeit tirzepatide.
Five Brazilians apprehended in Canindeyú: police point to PCC and counterfeit drug trafficking
Five Brazilian citizens were detained and an arsenal was seized on Monday afternoon in La Paloma del Espíritu Santo, Department of Canindeyú, as part of an operation dubbed Mirage. According to ultimahora.com, senior National Police authorities held a press conference on Tuesday with technical details of the procedure.
General Commissioner César Roberto Silguero Lobos, commander of the National Police, described the operation as "really extremely important work" for the institution, underlining regional cooperation to combat organised crime. "We are talking about Canindeyú, precisely a sensitive area where we also have important targets," Silguero said in remarks to NPY.
The main suspect: leg surgery to evade capture
The operation's name was not chosen at random. The main detainee, Douglas Fernando de Jesús Hartkoff—with an arrest warrant for homicide in Brazil—underwent leg-lengthening surgery of five centimetres to alter his official height from 1.70 metres to 1.75, and also had facial modifications made in order to confuse his identity before Brazilian authorities.
"That is why the operation is called Mirage. It is a physical modification that one of the main detainees underwent to appear different from what his physiognomy actually is, given the degree of concealment he is maintaining from Brazilian justice," explained Chief Commissioner Carlos Duré, who was responsible for the operation.
Silguero added that all the detainees have active arrest warrants in Brazil, which, he indicated, "obviously" would facilitate their expulsion if the Public Prosecutor's Office so determines. The weapons seized will be analysed in the laboratory to establish their traceability and determine possible links to other criminal acts.
Investigation points to PCC, although without definitive confirmation
Commissioner Duré noted that authorities are investigating the group's connection to the PCC—an organisation declared terrorist by Paraguay alongside the Comando Vermelho, following a request from the United States. However, he was emphatic that there is no formal confirmation yet.
"The first articulated and processed information is that they are people linked to it," he stated regarding the relationship between the detainees and the PCC, but clarified: "They are not precisely confirmations." He added that several of the apprehended individuals have characteristic tattoos associated with that criminal faction, but the data still needs to be corroborated.
According to police intelligence, the group had operated in drug trafficking in Brazil and committed a kidnapping followed by murder in that country, after which it entered Paraguay approximately a year ago to take refuge and reorganise.
"Once they carried out the kidnapping, they dressed as members of a special anti-kidnapping operations unit from Brazil, and in that uniform, they entered a house, took a person out and probably killed that person," Duré detailed. He indicated that following that incident the group relocated to the Paraguayan side "to serve as logistics, because they were creating their international trafficking network, involving both drugs and illegal pharmaceuticals".
The five detainees—four men and one woman—were transferred to the police headquarters in Asunción and later taken to Silvio Pettirossi airport to be expelled from the country.
Connection to Operation Narciso and the counterfeit tirzepatide network
The Mirage case is linked to another earlier procedure: Operation Narciso, carried out on Wednesday 12 August in Ciudad del Este. On that occasion, Brazilians Roberto Carlos Pereira de Carvalho and Jefferson Oliveira Dos Santos were arrested at a residence in the Boquerón 2 neighbourhood, which was searched by Public Prosecutor Luis Fernando Escobar of the Anti-Narcotics Division, with the involvement of trademark prosecutor Osvaldo Zaracho.
During the search, high-end vehicles and at least five types of medicines were found, including tirzepatide. Commissioner Duré stated at that time that the organisation under investigation was operating from Paraguay with a structure aimed at the falsification, conditioning and transfer of the weight-loss drug to Brazil, and was also linked to drug trafficking activities.
At the press conference following Operation Mirage, authorities indicated that the newly detained individuals would also be part of this counterfeit tirzepatide trafficking network, although, as in the PCC case, the investigative line remains open and the links still need to be formally confirmed.
Tirzepatide is a medication prescribed for weight management and type 2 diabetes, whose high demand in the region has generated a parallel market of counterfeit products with significant health risks.
Source: Google News PY — Crime