Paul Lir Alexander
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Paul Lir Alexander A.K.A. El Parito Loco, Paulo Ferriera Rothstein was a Brazilian drug smuggler who shipped cocaine to the United States while simultaneously helping the DEA bust other smugglers.
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[edit] History
Paul Lir Alexander was born in the town of Laguna, Santa Catarina on July 27, 1956. His mother later married a railroad worker. The family moved to the suburb of Porto Alegre called Novo Hamburgo. Paul attended high school in this town. He came an entrepreneur at an early age, selling ice creams on the beach in the summer and hot peanuts door to door during the winter. He married a woman named Claire or Clarese when he was 15 or 16 years old. When he was 17, he and his father had a violent physical fight, both were hospitalized. Paul agreed to join the Israeli Army to get out of Brazil.
The people of Brasil know him as - "O barao da cocaina". The English translation of this phrase is - "The Baron of Cocaine"
In 1982 he was in Nicaragua helping Lt. Col. Oliver North during the Iran-Contra Affair. He claimed that he was seduced into the drug dealing world there. He also made another statement later claiming he had been involved in drug dealing since 1979.
[edit] Xuxa
After Nicaragua Mossad assigned him to São Paulo, Brasil. His cover set up by Mossad was a "one girl talent agent office." In 1983 his only client was Maria da Graça Meneghel. Maria had been in Playboy magazine's Brazilian edition in December 1982, which led to her being cast in the motion picture Amor Estranho Amor (Love Strange Love, IMDB page) in which she plays a prostitute who seduces a 13 year old boy. Over the next four years he developed her into the rock and roll super star Xuxa.
During the mid to late 1980s. He bought a home in North Miami Beach and maintained close ties with the CIA. Around this time he divorced his first wife Claire and became involved with another woman named Erika, a dancer on television. Erica came from a poor family. Her father was a sergeant in the state of Rio de Janeiro prison service. She later married Alexander and had two children with him Tiffany alexander and yosef matthew alexander.
One of his methods involved packing cocaine inside large electric transformers and shipping them to the United States. At the height of his wealth, Alexander had a $5 million dollar group of condominiums in the Barra da Tijuca section of Rio de Janeiro. He had a million dollar house in North Miami Beach. He had a Hawker Sidley corporate jet. He had a $25 million dollar mega yacht he kept docked in Monte Carlo. (He claimed that he was a good friend of Prince Ranier of Monaco.) He had a fleet of motor cars and a 64,000-acre (260 km2) ranch in Mato Grosso, Brasil. His personal fortune was in the range of $100 million dollars. Before his arrest in April, 1993, Alexander was raising $350,000,000 to buy the Manchete television network in Brazil.
[edit] Arrest
Paul Alexander served over twelve years in prison for drug dealing in the United States. While in prison undercover agent Jerry Speziale published his book, Without A Badge. The book detailed the activities and methods of how he and Alexander brought down some of the biggest drug lords, including Alexander himself. Alexander was enraged that his dirty laundry was now being published. Paul Alexander actually sued Speziale under the pretense that the book violated his privacy. From the lawsuit:
- Speziale explains how he was able to infiltrate powerful drug distribution cartels and dupe them into believing that he was a trustworthy member of the illegal drug importing network. In fact, Speziale and the others involved in the undercover investigation would arrange for the shipments to be seized, and then attempt to foist off blame on other members of the importation network. This casting of blame was critical to the success of the undercover activities because the people found to be responsible for drug seizures were no longer trusted and were liable to be killed by the Colombian drug lords running the cocaine cartels. In his book, Speziale describes how Alexander’s sophistication and familiarity with the customs of these drug lords and the distribution network were critical to the success of the government’s undertakings.[1]
In the end the courts ruled that Speziale’s book did not violate Alexander’s privacy, and the case was dismissed. Towards the end of his sentence, he came under investigation in March, 2005 on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Sheriff Jerry Speziale of Passaic County, New Jersey. His partner's Florida home was raided. No charges were filed. He was deported to Brasil in September, 2005. He is in jail as of 2007[update] in Minas Gerais, Brazil. He faces drug dealing charges with a maximum sentence of 25 years.
Since his time with the Brazilian Federal Police they claim that Alexander has directed major drug dealing operations between 1997-1999 while he was a Federal prison inmate. They allege that some 5 tons of cocaine was seized as well as 24 aircraft.
Alexander was eventually sentenced to a staggering 42 years in prison. (Such a prison sentence in Brasil is normally only reserved for serial killers. He was confined from 2005 until August 2010 at Nelson Hungria Prison in Minas Gerais, Brasil. Alexander had a team of attorneys working on various appeals. He finally was granted permission to begin work release. On August 10, 2011 Paul Lir Alexander left the prison walls and went out for his day of court-approved work release. He never returned. Alexander had been in custody since April 1993. After over 17 years in prison, one can only speculate on how good it felt to finally taste freedom.
As of November 19, 2011, Alexander was still at large, He even maintains a Facebook page. There is a lot of speculation as to where Alexander went after he was released from prison. My first guess was Israel. He would not have been sent back to Brasil if discovered there. However my step son, Joao B. Santos, thinks that this is too obvious. He believes that Alexander is "hiding in plain sight" in Brasil. This is possible.
Paul Alexaner is the most interesting man that I have met in my entire life. I believe that he was a Mossad agent and I believe most of his story. The big mystery for me concerns the American authorities and Alexander. He ran a big drug ring from inside American Federal prisons and was never caught despite close monitoring of all of his communications. He also was literally involved in a murder conspiracy and never charged. For some reason the American authorities looked the other way. Why?
[edit] References
- He is discussed at length in the book Without A Badge by Jerry Speziale and Mark Seal.