São Paulo, Brazil

A fugitive Brazilian drug lord, Ronald Roland, who had been evading the law for two years, was arrested by the police after Instagram posts by his wife, Andrezza De Lima, accidentally gave clues about his location to the police.

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The authorities have been monitoring De Lima's social media activity in a bid to track her husband's whereabouts. The police were able to track the couple through the pictures shared by her on Instagram which contained geo-tagged locations and recognisable landmarks.

De Lima owned a bikini shop and shared pictures and videos frequently on social media. She posted about her luxurious trips to various iconic destinations including Dubai, Paris, Maldives, and Colombia. Last week, she posted a picture that had a particular landmark, through which the police could identify their exact location.

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According to the authorities, Roland was apprehended last Tuesday from his condominium in Guaruja, a coastal town in Brazil. He is suspected of being involved in a money laundering scheme and supplying drugs to Mexican cartels. The drug lord bundled up 860.2 million pounds in five years and shuffled the amount through over 100 shell firms and businesses.

De Lima was also involved in criminal activities with her husband and used her bikini shop as a front to launder money and receive payments which exceeded 30,000 dollars in a day.

After his arrest, Roland is facing multiple charges related to organised crime, drug trafficking, and evading arrest.

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This incident was not for the first time for Roland. He had been previously arrested in 2019 when his ex-wife had revealed his whereabouts by tagging the location in a social media post.

According to reports, Roland has been tailed by the police since the time he worked as an airline pilot in 2012. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned the Federal Police of Brazil about a group of Brazilian pilots being involved in smuggling of cocaine, in a letter. Since then, Roland has been a person of interest in the Brazilian police investigations related to drug trafficking networks.

(With inputs from agencies)