Asuncion – Paraguayan authorities on Monday deported two Brazilian alleged drug traffickers arrested on Friday in the town of Pedro Juan Caballero, 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Asuncion on the border with the neighboring country.
Jose Clyver Vilanova Cavalcante and Jonathan Gimenes Grance were handed over to Brazilian authorities in Ciudad del Este, just across the Parana River from the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguazu.
Brazil’s Federal Police chief, Agripino Oliveira Neto, at Brasilia’s embassy in Asuncion on an official visit, told EFE that the deportees had outstanding arrest warrants against them in two Brazilian courts.
The police official was in Paraguay to participate in the display of a shipment of 588 weapons seized on Sunday in Pedro Juan Caballero which were presumably destined for criminal gangs in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Vilanova Cavalcante is a pilot who stands accused of smuggling some 600 kilograms of cocaine per year, while Gimenes Grance is the nephew of one of the most wanted drug kingpins in the border area with Brazil.
The pair were arrested in a hotel in Pedro Juan Caballero and transferred to the SENAD anti-drug agency headquarters in Asuncion, and then they were sent to Ciudad del Este to be delivered to Brazilian police.
Upon their arrests on Saturday, the two men presented false identity documents, according to a SENAD communique.
