Brazilian Federal Police moved swiftly on arrest warrants and property searches targeting two individuals hit with US Treasury sanctions for allegedly laundering over $30 million in drug proceeds through cryptocurrency. The coordinated crackdown between Washington and Brasilia represents one of the most significant joint enforcement actions against crypto-enabled money laundering tied to organized crime in Latin America.
The sanctioned individuals, Victor Henrique de Oliveira Shimada and Stella Stefanie Nunes Henrique de Oliveira, reportedly go by the aliases “Japa” and “Lara Croft” respectively. Their alleged crime: running a sophisticated laundering pipeline that used both crypto and trade-based methods to clean money for the Primeiro Comando da Capital, better known as PCC, one of Brazil’s most powerful criminal organizations.
The sanctions and their scope
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) dropped the designations on July 1, 2026, targeting not just the two individuals but also four companies alleged to be part of the laundering infrastructure. Three Brazilian firms, Victory Trading, Pixwave Soluções e Pagamentos, and Wave Construções Inteligentes, were designated alongside a Portuguese entity called Owens Avenadas.
