Gilberto ‘Fuminho’ Aparecido dos Santos caught after more than 20 years on the run

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

One of Brazil’s most wanted people, an alleged drug baron accused of running international cocaine operations for the country’s biggest gang, has been arrested in Mozambique.

Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos, believed to be the leader of the First Capital Command (PCC), was arrested in an international sting that included agents from Brazil, Mozambique and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Mozambican police confirmed the arrest on Tuesday.

He is accused of shipping tonnes of cocaine around the world, the Brazilian federal police said “The accused was considered the largest cocaine supplier” for the PCC, and had been on the run for more than 20 years, it said.

Dos Santos was arrested at the Montebelo Indy, a luxury hotel in Maputo, along with two Nigerian nationals. He had arrived in the southern African country in mid-March, a Mozambique police spokesman, Leonardo Simbine, said.

Brazil issued an international arrest warrant two years ago. Police said there was no evidence that Dos Santos had previously been to Mozambique.

Simbine said: “He does not operate alone, he is part of a gang. We are still investigating whether there are other gang members in Mozambique.”

One of the Nigerians held a visitor’s visa for Mozambique, the other had a temporary residence visa.

Born in the prisons of São Paulo in the 1990s, the PCC is considered Brazil’s most powerful criminal gang, wielding control over cocaine supply routes from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

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Its leader, Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, is serving a sentence of more than 200 years in a maximum-security prison in the capital, Brasilia.

Dos Santos is accused, among other things, of financing a plot to help Camacho escape, police said.

Mozambican police said it was still to early to speak of Dos Santos possibly being extradited to Brazil to be prosecuted.

Police recovered a fake Brazilian passport, 100g of cannabis, 15 mobile phones and a car, as well as cash equivalent to about $800 (£633) in Mozambican and South African currency.