Appointed by the Federal Police as the financier of the R$ 3.5 million bribe allegedly paid to federal judge Cândido Ribeiro, of the Zone 1 Regional Court, in exchange for the release of a drug dealer, Karine Campos is a frequent name in drug trafficking combat investigations at least since 2011.
Known in police circles as the "Cocaine Queen" ( "Rainha do pó" ) and the largest exporter of cocaine via the country's ports, Karine was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the Federal Court in São Paulo in 2020. She has been on the run since 2021 when the STJ (Supreme Court of Justice) replaced the sentence with house arrest.
The reason was the two minor children who, according to the decision, needed their mother's presence. Folha tried to contact the lawyers who appear as defenders of Karine Campos in court cases but did not receive a response.
After obtaining freedom, in August 2021, Karine Campos managed to get off the radar of the Federal Police but returned in 2022 when the investigation on the purchase of a sentence at TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court-1) started. The Federal Police suspect that she is currently on the run in Bolivia or Paraguay.
As Folha revealed, throughout the investigation of the Habeas Patter operation, the Federal Police monitored the meeting between relatives of Leonardo Nobre, a member of the Cocaine Queen's crew, and people linked to federal judge Cândido Ribeiro, including lawyer Ravik Ribeiro, son of the judge.
Translated by Cassy Dias