Prison of Deolane Bezerra Exposes Web of Suspicious Activities and Links with PCC
By Isabella Alonso Panho May 29, 2026, 6:00 AM
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – The lawyer, when arrested in São Paulo: investigation points to dozens of companies and proximity to Marcola
At least since the end of 2023, digital influencers, who attract millions of followers on social media by showing a daily life of luxury and easy earnings, have come under the scrutiny of authorities. In many cases, evidence accumulates that behind imported cars, Chanel bags, international travel, jewelry, and watches worth large sums, the new celebrities hide a life of crime. A few days ago, suspicions about this phenomenon of modern times escalated with the arrest of influencer and lawyer Deolane Bezerra, who has over 21 million fans on Instagram alone. According to the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, however, she may have more than that: the investigation found numerous companies linked to Deolane, the use of front men, countless suspicious million-dollar bank transactions, and evidence showing proximity to the top leadership of the PCC criminal faction, the largest in Brazil.
The thread did not start being pulled now. The investigation that culminated in Operation Vérnix began in 2019, when prison guards found a letter, torn into several pieces, in the sewer of the cell that Sharlon Praxedes da Silva, “Maradona,” shared with Gilmar Pinheiro Feitoza, “Cigano,” both from the PCC, inside Penitentiary II Maurício Henrique Guimarães Pereira, in Presidente Venceslau, in the interior of São Paulo. The document, reconstructed, mentions the purchase of rifles, demands the murder of public officials, and cites a woman from a transport company located 300 meters from the prison, called Lado a Lado Transportes.
The company, according to the investigation, had as hidden partners Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, Marcola, the faction's top leader, and his brother, Alejandro, both imprisoned, and was used for money laundering. While the formal owner of the CNPJ was a Bolsa Família beneficiary, the business moved more than 20 million reais between 2015 and 2019. It was through the breaking of bank secrecy of those involved with the establishment that the police first reached Deolane.
According to the police, she was an important part of a scheme that involved the opening of successive companies, which made transfers from one to another, making it difficult to investigate the origin and destination of this money. Deolane would have opened more than thirty companies within this operation, but the number may be larger. Several of these establishments are registered under front men and have as their headquarters popular houses in the interior of the state, in the names of third parties. In just one popular residence in the city of Martinópolis (24,000 inhabitants) there were 32 registered firms. Companies in Deolane's name received millions of reais under suspicion, through fintechs and payment intermediaries. The main one is Bezerra Publicidade e Comunicação Ltda. Of the more than 12 million reais moved during the investigation, 3.9 million have no clear origin. In one case, the firm received, in four deposits, 636,418 reais from Marcos Cred, a CNPJ whose only partner is a young man who works at a stationery store and earns a minimum wage. Deolane had close personal relationships and made several financial transactions with Francisca Alves da Silva, Marcola's sister-in-law, arrested in the operation. An accountant linked to the Camacho family would have been responsible for opening companies in Deolane's name. The influencer also had a connection with Everton de Souza, known as “Player,” identified as a financial operator for the PCC.
In addition to the financial transactions, Deolane's life carried several other indications that her fortune had no legal origin. One of the points highlighted by the police is the intense flow of luxury cars in the influencer's garage. Despite being flaunted on social media as professional achievements, many were not even in her name. In the operation, the police seized four vehicles whose market value totaled 5 million reais. One of them, the Cadillac Escalade, valued at 2 million reais, is not even sold in Brazil.
The investigation also showed other signs of the influencer's proximity to crime. In one episode, Deolane was taken to court by a former housekeeper, Denise Bastos, who had been accused of stealing 80,000 reais in cash from the apartment of Kayky, one of the influencer's sons, in Tatuapé, East Zone of São Paulo. “Give back my son's money and move on with your life, because otherwise, you'll have to deal with me,” Deolane says in one of the voice messages in the court case. In another audio, a man identified as “Jhon” indicates to whom the amount belonged. “We launder money with the partners there, the partner's mother, the partner works with us,” he said. To VEJA, Denise confirmed that she was sought at home by men who presented themselves as members of organized crime. They searched her belongings and her cell phone for the money that, according to them, “was from crime.”
This was not the first time Deolane came under police scrutiny. At the end of 2024, she was imprisoned for two weeks by Operation Integration of the Civil Police of Pernambuco and the MP, which targeted money laundering schemes and promotion of illegal bets. Due to jurisdictional issues, the investigation was annulled by the courts, transferred to the Federal Police, and is ongoing. Now in prison, Deolane wrote a letter in which she denies the accusations, says she does not have several companies, claims she only received fee money, and alleges she is being persecuted by authorities. “I am not and have never been a criminal! I am a mother, a businesswoman, a lawyer,” she said. Last Thursday, the 28th, the Senate police filed a police report concerning an alleged plan by Deolane to kill Flávio Bolsonaro, revealed by a funk singer during a podcast.
Deolane's fall is the most significant in a movement that has only increased in recent times. In April of this year, Operation Narco Fluxo of the Federal Police arrested Marlon Brendon Coelho Couto da Silva, MC Poze do Rodo, and Ryan Santana dos Santos, MC Ryan SP, two phenomena on social media, both suspected of laundering money for the PCC through show contracts and advertising ("publis"). The two were released on May 14, subject to various restrictions, but continue to be investigated. The same operation arrested the owner of the Choquei page, Raphael Sousa Oliveira, who has already left prison but remains under investigation. Who remains in jail since October 2025 is Bruno Alexssander Souza Silva, Buzeira, an influencer suspected of laundering money for international drug trafficking through illegal betting houses and unregulated raffles. Mauricio Martins Junior, Maumau ZK, was the target of another operation, suspected of money laundering in a similar scheme, but ended up arrested due to a firearm with a scratched-off serial number found during searches. He was released at the custody hearing, but before leaving, he did what he knows: recorded himself in prison and posted it on social media (see the box).
Being a digital influencer in Brazil is a lucrative profession, with almost no rules and in rapid expansion. It is no wonder we are the country with the most people in this activity in the world, according to a survey conducted at the end of 2025 by Reglab Consultoria. There are 3.8 million users who identify themselves as content creators—Brazilians represent 16% of the world's influencers. The same survey mapped that there are 88 bills setting rules and limits for the activity stalled in Congress. Moreover, the regulation of social networks is one of the most thorny issues of the current government. Despite promises by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the firmest step taken in this direction came from the trial of excerpts of the Internet Civil Rights Framework (Marco Civil da Internet) in the Supreme Federal Court last year, which imposed more obligations on platforms—its effectiveness still depends on overcoming dozens of appeals from big tech companies.
“The lawless land” facilitates money laundering, the cornerstone of faction engineering. “Organized crime seeks gray zones, regulatory opacity, to maximize profits without being caught. It is very difficult to measure how much an influencer’s advertising contract is worth,” says public prosecutor Carlos Gaya from Gaeco of São Paulo. Under the law, there are no limits on what can be promoted or how much a “publi” is worth, and what type of product can be advertised. “Money laundering has only migrated territory. It is leaving gas stations, shops, and transport companies for the digital world,” analyzes Roberta Fernandes, a sociologist at UFMG and associate researcher at the Brazilian Forum on Public Security. The few rules that work in the digital world, such as the obligation to signal advertising content and materials made with artificial intelligence, are not enough to contain serious problems on the internet. Criminals have begun to enjoy the fame of influencers, closing partnerships that represent the newest challenge in this field for the police and the courts.
Published in VEJA on May 29, 2026, edition nº 2997
