SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A would-be Brazilian mayor was in custody on Tuesday for international drug trafficking on charges of importing 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of cocaine on a plane that took off from Colombia, federal police in Brasilia said.
Misilvan Chavier dos Santos denied police claims that he planned to use money from drug sales to finance a pending bid for political office. Chavier dos Santos ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Tupiratins in Tocantins state in 2004 and for state congress in 2002.
His next campaign had also been showing signs of trouble.
Chavier dos Santos was expelled from the centrist Social Democracy Party last week after he used a motorcycle to flee from another plane loaded with cocaine just as federal police arrived at a clandestine airstrip.
In that case, he abruptly landed his plane, which had taken off in the Amazon, after realizing he was being followed by a Brazilian Air Force jet.
Accusations of improper campaign financing are widespread in Brazil, Latin America's largest country. |
high five!!!