Alligators worked for drug dealer
Brazilian police say they’ve literally taken a bite out of crime. The cops raided the home of a drug dealer’s mother-in-law yesterday and found two alligators, one almost 6 feet long, police inspector Ronaldo Oliveira said.
The alligators were discovered by Rio de Janeiro police, along with a machine gun, cocaine and three grenades, in the slum house of a man identified only by his nickname, “Spider,” Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported, citing authorities.
Police struggled for 20 minutes to bring one of the reptiles under control after it escaped by jumping from the back of a police truck, Folha said. Police nicknamed the animals Celso and Maia, after the two officers who led the sting operation.
Police speculated that traffickers used the alligators to help them dispose of bodies and to torture captured members of rival gangs, though they gave no evidence of that.
Oliveira said the woman didn’t know the reptiles were in her house and she was not arrested. The alligators were turned over to a zoo in Rio de Janeiro.