A leader of the Brazilian crime syndicate PCC has been captured in Bolivia after six years on the run, Brazilian media reported on Tuesday.
Gerson Palermo had been sentenced to nearly 126 years in prison for international drug trafficking and a plane hijacking, the news portal G1 reported. He was on Brazil's list of most wanted criminals.
According to investigators, Palermo was arrested in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in eastern Bolivia during a joint operation by the Federal Police of Brazil and Bolivian anti-drug units. He is to be deported and handed over to the Brazilian police, G1 quoted David Gómez, head of the Bolivian anti-drug unit, as saying.
"He faced no trial here in Bolivia; but he was hiding, he was escaping Brazilian justice in our country," Gómez said.
Palermo was released from prison in 2020 following a controversial court ruling and subsequently went into hiding. The judge involved was later forcibly retired by Brazil's National Council of Justice.
According to G1, Palermo was involved in a plane hijacking in 2000, when a Boeing 737 belonging to the Brazilian airline Vasp was forced to land in the state of Paraná and robbed.
Investigators say Palermo later was part of the leadership of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital). The group is considered the most powerful criminal organization in Brazil and a key player in cocaine smuggling from the Andean states.
