Influencer charged with drugs trafficking after trying to board Dubai flight with cocaine

The influencer had almost half a kilo of cocaine in her bag

A social media influencer and her fiancé's friend have been charged with drugs trafficking after they were caught trying to board a flight from Brazil to Dubai with cocaine. Brazilian influencer Lais Crisostomo Aguiar and her 44-year-old friend, car washer Peterson de Souza Fontes, tried to board the flight from Sao Paulo with cocaine-filled capsules in food supplement bottles. They have been charged with one count of international drug trafficking. The pair were arrested at Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport in the municipality of Guarulhos on August 5 and are set to face trial following a decision by the 1st Federal Court of Guarulhos in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, Brazilian site G1 reported on Friday (October 8). They were caught after an x-ray scan of their suitcases revealed 461g of cocaine in capsules inside food supplement containers. The two have since been held in prison. According to the Mail, Judge Valdeci dos Santos denied a petition from Crisóstomo Aguiar to be released. Santos said the argument that Aguiar "was unaware of the contents of the suitcase is not credible, given that the seized cocaine was hidden in a suitcase with the [suspect's] personal effects." Fontes admitted in court that the cocaine was his and that he, Aguiar and her fiancé Henrique Catoriello were all users. But Aguiar rejected these claims. The court concluded that: "the amount of cocaine found in [Aguiar's] possession cannot be classified as being a user, making it clear that the drug would be the object of circulation in society." Crisóstomo Aguiar told the court that she had been living in Dubai since 2020 and that Catoriello owned a currency exchange business there. She had apparently returned to Brazil on July 23 to celebrate her goddaughter’s birthday and was going to open an aesthetics business in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais. The influencer has almost 400,000 followers on Instagram and would often share images of her glamorous trips and lifestyle. She has since deleted all of her photos from her account. Related links:

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