An influencer who lived a life of luxury allegedly funded by acting as the armourer for an organised crime gang was arrested by cops just as she discovered she was pregnant with her first child.
Ironically, cops decided to raid her home after finding her life of luxury, as seen on her social media pages, could not possibly have been funded by her modest admin job at a medical clinic.
Officers in Sao Paulo State raided the home of 25-year-old Mariana Fragoso on the suspicion she was being paid by criminal gang members for services that included storing a massive cache of firearms in her flat.
The social media posts that made them suspicious included a series of trips abroad, a state-of-the-art cell phone, expensive cosmetic surgery, and weekends in a holiday cabin or shopping.
She was also often seen on expensive speedboats or riding in luxury cars.
And she even sported tattoos that featured a drawing of a bag full of money and a phrase from the song 'Negro Drama', by Racionais MC's.
As they carried out the arrest, she reportedly still had the pregnancy test results in her hand as she stood in front of the medical clinic where she worked as an admin assistant.
Cops said the arrest was ordered after they discovered the arsenal of weapons in the wardrobe of designer clothes at her apartment in Campinas.
Investigators say that Fragoso confessed only to receiving BRL 1,000 (GBP 160) per month to store the firearms, but they suspect that she was actually far more involved than she admitted and was being paid more as well.
The cache, which reportedly includes rifles and sub-machine guns, is said to belong to the notorious criminal organisation Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).
Investigators are working to find the names of the weapons' owners and also more details of her involvement with the gang from Fragoso's seized mobile phone.
The social media star, who boasts more than 11,000 followers on Instagram, had just found out she was pregnant at the time of her arrest.
She will remain in custody until the investigation is completed. The tattooed suspect had used her Instagram page to share images of boat trips, cosmetic procedures, and shopping trips.
Her posts had raised suspicions about the source of her income.
The police suspect that one of the rifles found in her home was used in a double homicide at a bar in Sao Paulo in January.
Fragoso could face four years behind bars if convicted of possessing illegal weapons and a minimum of 12 years if found guilty of belonging to a criminal organisation.
The PCC is Brazil's largest criminal organisation, with an estimated 30,000 members.
Drug trafficking is its main source of revenue, but it also engages in cargo theft, bank robberies, and kidnappings.
