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#bigmoneyindrugdealing I wrote a biography of the international drug dealer Paul Lir Alexander (o barao da cocaina). Paul was born in the small fishing village of Laguna, Santa Catarina, Brasil to an unwed mother. He started life poor and humble. Before Paul became a drug dealer, he had a distinguished career as an Israeli Mossad agent. He earned two college degrees at a prestigious private university in Rio de Janeiro. He learned to speak six languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, and Yiddish.) He created a brilliant talent agency, Sunshine Entertainment Limitada, that created the Brasilian superstar Xuxa. Just on that basis, he became a millionaire in his 20s.
Then Paul became a drug dealer importing some $9 billion worth of cocaine to the US and Australia. At the time of his arrest in April 1993 at the age of 37, Paul had the following assets:
1) A Hawker Sidley corporate jet.
2) A $5 million apartment in the Barra da Tijuca section of Rio de Janeiro.
3) A $800,000 house in north Miami Beach.
4) A 6,400-hectare (15,874 acres) ranch in Brasil.
5) A $25 million mega yacht.
6) Paul was completing the raising of over $300,000,000 to buy The Manchete Television Network in Brasil.
I asked Paul why he went into drug dealing. He calmly replied that he could not resist the temptation of so much money.
Over 30 years later, the temptation of big money to be made from drug dealing is still alive and well. The senior Spanish officer in charge of fighting drug importation into Spain has been arrested for drug dealing and money laundering. Here is the story:

Spain
Spain arrested the former top law enforcement officer in charge of the unit investigating fraud and corruption after the Guardian reported this week that around $22 million was hidden in the walls of his house.
Óscar Sánchez Gil, the former head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division of Spain’s national police force, was arrested last week along with 15 other people, including his girlfriend, also a police officer in the Madrid region.
During the raid on his home, police found the cash hidden in the walls and ceilings of the couple’s home near the Spanish capital.
Officers also found more than $1 million in his office.
The couple has been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and membership of a criminal organization and have been jailed until trial.
Spanish media said the arrests were linked to the seizure last month of 13 tons of cocaine that arrived in the southern port of Algeciras from Ecuador, the largest-ever haul of cocaine in Spain and “one of the largest seizures in the world.”
Police operations uncovered links between the importer of the drugs and Sánchez Gil.
He was already under suspicion by his colleagues who had tapped his phone, the newspaper El Mundo reported. He is suspected of having worked for the drug traffickers for “at least five years,” providing information on the surveillance of containers in Spanish ports, which enabled them to avoid checks, Agence France-Presse wrote.
Spain is a main entry point for drugs into Europe because of its close ties with former colonies in Latin America such as major cocaine producers Colombia and Peru, and its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.