The Briefing:
- More than $30 million in drug proceeds was laundered through U.S. bank accounts across at least eight cities, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York, Rochester, and Tampa
- Six defendants were convicted — five of them Brazilian nationals residing in the United States without legal authorization, all based in Orlando at the time of their arrests
- Real-time WhatsApp message chains coordinated dozens of bulk cash pickups and bank deposits across the country
- Saviolli co-directed the U.S. arm of the scheme alongside a Treasury-sanctioned PCC operative who remains a fugitive and has not yet faced a courtroom
A 35-year-old Brazilian national tied to the Primeiro Comando da Capital received a 12-year federal prison sentence Friday for commanding a cross-border network that channeled more than $30 million in drug proceeds through U.S. bank accounts spanning at least eight cities and several countries.
The conviction stands as one of the most direct federal strikes against PCC-linked financial infrastructure on American soil and illustrates how deeply Brazil's most powerful criminal organization has embedded itself inside the U.S. banking system.
The Financier Behind the Couriers
Ygor Fokin Saviolli was not a street courier. According to the Department of Justice, he served as both the operation's financier and its field commander — the person who supplied up-front capital to launch the scheme and personally tracked the movement of drug proceeds from pickup points to bank deposit counters across the country. That supervisory position placed him above all other defendants in the case, and his 144-month sentence reflected it accordingly.
Saviolli's documented connection to the PCC stretches to at least October 2023, when he was stopped at Fort Lauderdale International Airport and had his devices seized by Homeland Security Investigations agents. A digital forensics examination of that hardware uncovered videos, images, and wire transfer records pointing to PCC-linked financial operations. Brazil's Federal Police subsequently identified Saviolli as the logistical coordinator of a money-washing network that Brazilian investigators estimate moved the equivalent of R$10 billion through the PCC's international channels.
How $30 Million Passed Through Eight American Cities
The mechanics of the scheme were deliberately uncomplicated. Couriers operating inside the United States collected raw cash — the unprocessed proceeds of drug sales — and deposited those funds at banks in cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York, Rochester, and Tampa, burying the illicit origins of the money beneath a layer of ordinary-looking financial transactions before the laundered profits were routed back to overseas drug suppliers.
The operation ran on WhatsApp, with couriers and facilitators receiving live guidance on pickup locations and deposit targets through shared message chains. Pushing dozens of transactions across a wide geographic footprint helped prevent banks from spotting patterns in the aggregate movement of cash.
Gabriel Cezar Menezes, 29, functioned directly below Saviolli as a field supervisor, personally handling multiple bulk cash collections while also directing couriers operating beneath him. He received 94 months — the second-longest term of any defendant in the case.
Six Defendants, Five Living in the U.S. Without Legal Status
Of the six people convicted, five were Brazilian nationals who had been residing in the United States without legal authorization — all of them living in Orlando at the time of their arrests. The sole exception was Omar Aliperti De Mello Correa, 34, a U.S. citizen who worked as a courier and received a 30-month sentence.
Leandro De Avila Goncalves, 43, drew 24 months, while Joao Andrade De Mello, 29, and Tadeu Sebastiane Rabelo Alves Barbosa, 30, were each sentenced to 12 months and one day — the shortest terms in the case. Those five co-defendants appeared before the court on September 24, three weeks before Saviolli's Friday sentencing.
The PCC's American Chapter — and a Fugitive Still Uncaught
Brazilian investigative reporting linked the operation directly to the PCC — the Primeiro Comando da Capital, a criminal organization founded in 1993 inside a São Paulo state prison that has since grown into a transnational enterprise with documented operations across South America, Europe, and, increasingly, the United States.
Saviolli allegedly co-ran the financial apparatus with Victor Henrique de Oliveira Shimada, a Brazilian operative later placed on the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions list for his alleged role in hiding and moving PCC assets abroad. Shimada remains at large. His listing freezes any U.S.-linked assets and bars Americans from transacting with him — yet he has not appeared in a courtroom.
Three Agencies, Two Continents, One Investigation
The FBI led the investigation, drawing support from the DEA's Rochester Resident Office and Homeland Security Investigations' Brasília Attaché Office and Miami Field Office. The multi-agency structure required simultaneous coordination between domestic agents and HSI personnel based in Brazil.
Trial attorneys from the Justice Department's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section prosecuted the case alongside a federal prosecutor from the Southern District of Florida. All six defendants entered guilty pleas in June 2026, rendering a full trial unnecessary.
Saviolli's 12-year term — the stiffest handed down in the case — closes out a multiyear investigation that began when federal agents seized a phone at a South Florida airport and ended with a federal judge sending a foreign criminal financier to prison for more than a decade, and signaling that the U.S. financial system is not a safe harbor for transnational drug money.
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