How a businesswoman’s Instagram posts led police to her fugitive drug lord husband.
Ronald Rowland 50 after two years of searching. Roland was arrested last Tuesday when federal police raided their apartment in Guarujá, where he was sleeping with De Lima and their daughter.
Andrea de Lima is a successful businesswoman who often narrates her travels through the social media platforms which she uses. Women on Facebook. As such, according to the government’s investigation, it’s more likely that her widely shared photos or posts about luxurious life were the ones that revealed her husband hiding place.
This is because of an Instagram photo she posted showing her family on a Dubai beach; this led to investigations by law enforcement officers in Brazil, and Ronald was eventually apprehended at 2 AM just as he slept beside his wife and baby girl.
Federal agents believe that Rowland has partnered up with Mexican drug cartels for instance and thus estimate that over time they have helped him launder almost $900 million from dirty money operations involving different businesses like his wife’s bikini shop.
Since 2012 when Rowland worked as an airline pilot, his activities have been monitored by agents Ricardo Ruiz said. Because during that period they suspected him of being one of the major contributors to drug trafficking in Mexico leading into massive smuggling of narcotics from Central and South America.
In 2019, authorities noticed something unusual after Rowland moved into an upscale flat located in Uberlandia municipality in Minas Gerais state. At one point he drove around using a luxury car whose price could be as high as $183,000 making things worse for him.
Prior to recent arrest on Thursday morning, in July 2019 his ex-wife accidentally told people where had gone out to eat by posting on Insta gram with its geo location turned on while taking pictures and selfies inside a Sao Paulo restaurant. The mug shots taken at the time showed scars on his face which indicated plastic surgery procedures undergone by him.
