Brazilian police seize cocaine in cat litter

OVERNIGHT FIND | Handout picture shows the team of highway policemen that seized more than a ton of cocaine worth an estimated $39 million. (Photo from the Minas Gerais State Federal Police via Agence France-Presse)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Police in Brazil seized more than a ton of cocaine concealed in a truck carrying cat litter, officials said on Saturday.

The find was made overnight in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais when highway police searched the truck as it traveled to the port city of Salvador de Bahia.

“Thanks to sniffer dogs, agents found around 1,140 kilos of cocaine in bags hidden under a cargo of cat litter,” highway police said in a statement.

The cocaine is worth around $39 million, it added.

Brazil is a crossroads for international drug trafficking, receiving by road or river shipments from cocaine-producing countries like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia and then sending it on to Europe or Africa on ships leaving major ports such as Santos or Salvador de Bahia.

In June, a man named Sergio Roberto de Carvalho — known as the Pablo Escobar of Brazil — was arrested in Hungary.

Suspected of running a major drug ring supplying cocaine to Europe, de Carvalho had been on the run since 2020.

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