Brazil arrests drug kingpin after 30 years

Police in Brazil have arrested a drug kingpin who had managed to evade capture for three decades by undergoing a plastic surgery on his face.

Luiz Carlos da Rocha - going by the nickname 'White Head' - was finally arrested in the city of Sorriso in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, media reported on Saturday.

Rocha, who headed an enormous international criminal network, “lived discreetly and in the shadows... evading police attempts for almost 30 years,” police said in a statement.

Rocha was living under a pseudonym, Vitor Luiz de Moraes, after undergoing cosmetic surgery.

He produced cocaine in remote jungle locations in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, and distributed the costly narcotics locally, in the United States, and in Europe.

Rocha was arrested in “Operation Spectrum,” in which 150 police agents carried out 24 raids, also seizing an estimated $10 million worth of luxury cars, aircraft, and arms.

The second phase of Operation Spectrum would attempt to confiscate Rocha’s deposits in offshore bank accounts, estimated to be worth $100 million.

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