A jet full of cocaine in Brazil shows Turkey’s increasing role in global drug trafficking. The UN drugs agency says the cocaine is sent via Turkey to EU countries, as well as Eastern European and Middle Eastern nations.
On August 4, 2021, Brazilian federal police boarded a jet registered with the Istanbul-based ACM Air charter company in the northern city of Fortaleza. The private jet, which bore the tail code TC-GVA, was carrying one Belgian-Spanish passenger, four Turkish crew members and, police discovered, 1.3 tons of cocaine in 24 suitcases, with a market value of €45.6 million.
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According to documents seen by DW, the jet had begun its journey in Malaga, Spain, and, after clearing inbound customs in Fortaleza, Brazil, flew to Ribeirao Preto, where it was scheduled to pick up four passengers bound for Brussels with a stop in Portugal. But, when it was raided by Brazilian police in Fortaleza, the only passenger was a man named Angel Gonzalez Valdez.
Footage of the raid was broadcast by media across Brazil and Latin America, as well as in Spain, Belgium and Turkey, and shared on social media by Turkish opposition politicians and prominent Brazilians abroad.
By the end of the year, Valdez would die of cancer in custody, the pilot would be sent back to Turkey, where he was charged for his role in the suspected cocaine trafficking, and the Turkish press would be asking how a formerly state-owned jet — indeed, the plane that had carried President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to safety during the 2016 coup — had ended up stuffed with drugs and impounded in Brazil.
Trafficking via Turkey
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Turkey is increasingly becoming a transit point for global cocaine trafficking. From 2014 to 2020, the amount of cocaine seized in the country rose almost fivefold, according to the UNODC. In 2020, about 2 tons were captured.
Antoine Vella, a researcher with UNODC, told DW that Turkish traffickers are acquiring a greater share of the European cocaine market, with Turkey mostly used as a transit country for cocaine destined for southeastern and eastern Europe. “Large quantities have been seized in individual cases, both in Turkey and in Latin American countries en route to Turkey in 2020 and 2021,” Vella said.
Cocaine is trafficked to Turkey both via air couriers and maritime shipments. “Air couriers often use Istanbul airport to land and may travel from South America as well as Africa,” Vella said. “The recent increase is likely driven by the maritime shipments.”
‘Brazilian Pablo Escobar’
Documents and information obtained by DW suggest that a former Brazilian military police officer named Sergio Roberto de Carvalho may have been behind the Turkish plane that was seized in Fortaleza. According to media reports, Brazilian police also suspect’s Carvalho’s involvement. Malaga, the point of departure for the Turkish airplane’s flight to Brazil, is known to be a base that he has used previously.
Carvalho, aka “the Brazilian Pablo Escobar,” is one of the world’s principal drug barons and purportedly trafficked nearly 50 tons of cocaine to Europe from 2018 through 2021. According to Spanish media, he was living in Spain with a fake Surinamese passport in the name of “Paul Wouter.” Carvalho was detained as Wouter when the Spanish police confiscated a cargo of 1.7 tons of cocaine — in Paul Wouter’s name — on a ship inbound from Suriname.
dw.com