Mafia round-up in Rio

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 9

Mafia round-up in Rio

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) RIO DE JANEIRO,

November 2.

“Le Beau Serge,” a long-hunted French gangster, a Brazilian model named Helena, and five other suspects are in prison in Rio de Janeiro today, as the police hunt for more alleged members of a Mafia-run South American drug ring.

The seven, said to be key figures in the so-called “Latin American connection” were arrested, one by one, after Narcotics Bureau agents had smashed an underworld code based on the word, "shirt.” The ring, operating in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, and shipping heroin to the United States, sent messages ordering, for instance, “50 shirts, size 10|.” But the police intercepted them and discovered that this meant 50 kilos of heroin at a price of SUSIO,SOO a kilo. According to police sources the head of the complex South American section was “Le Beau Serge,” the French gangster. Christian David, aged 42, who was captured last month in a seedy hotel

after an international investigation lasting six years. David, a soldier of fortune with a gun for hire, is said to have been involved in subversive movements in South America since fleeing from French justice in 1966, after shooting dead the head of the French agency combating drug-traffic. A Brazilian police dossier discredits “Le Beau Serge” with killing at least four other policemen in various countries. It also links him with the 1965 kidnapping of the Moroccan leader, Mr Mehdi Ben Barka, who is believed to have been murdered after being seized in a Paris street.

“Le Beau Serge” is said to have been trained in the French Secret Service before selling his skills to Morocco. He is also alleged to have absconded with $U5250,000 of an Argentine guerrilla movement’s funds.

In prison with him now are three other Frenchmen: Francois Canazzi (“The Corsican”), Michel Nicole, and Claude Pastoqu. So is a hitherto respected Brazilian businessman, Homero Almeida Guimaraes, who is now suspected of belonging to the ring. The police say that the two other suspects under arrest provided the evidence that

led to the smashing of the ring last month, when narcotics agents found more than 60 kilos of heroin worth SUS4Sm under sheepskins aboard an American freighter berthed at Rio de Janeiro. One of the two men is Guglielino Casalini, said to be the link-man between the Brazilian section and the Mafia in America and Canada. The other is a Brazilian model, Helena Ferreira, the girl-friend of a drugsmuggler recently shot dead in a gun-battle with Mexican police. Ferreira was arrested when she returned to Brazil after a Latin American tour with her boy-friend, during which she was imprisoned in Peru for alleged forgery. But the Brazilian head of the drug-ring is still at large. He is the Italian-born Tomaso Buschetta, the owner of a taxi-fleet and bistro, who is said to be the “godfather” of Brazil’s Mafia connections.