Passengers on board a plane were left shocked after a pilot accused of running a paedophile ring was led away by police shortly before take-off. Sérgio Antônio Lopes, a pilot for LATAM Airlines in Brazil, is being investigated as part of an operation dubbed ‘Fasten your Seatbelt’ over alleged sexual abuse of children and sharing images.
Footage has been released by local police showing Lopes, 60, being arrested at Congonhas Airport, in the south of Sao Paulo, on February 9. In the footage, a police officer can be heard saying: “You can call for an emergency pilot because he’s been arrested.” The arrest was reportedly made just before the aircraft was supposed to take off.
Lopes was allowed to go into the cockpit to retrieve his belongings, before being handcuffed and taken away.
More clips also show him being led through the airport by police and to a car.
It is alleged that Lopes took underage girls to hotels using fake documents and also ran a paedophile ring which shared images and carried out sexual abuse, The Mirror reports.
An unnamed 55-year-old woman was also arrested, accused of soliciting her granddaughters to be abused – with the children aged eight, 10 and 14 when the alleged crimes took place.
At a press conference, police chief Ivalda Aleixo claimed Lopes “raped” children and that his alleged paedophile ring had been operational for at least eight years.
Ms Alexio said: “He had contact with some of the victims and he even took them to motels using adult IDs. He started abusing one of them when she was eight-years-old, and now she is 12, and another one of the victims has just turned 18. When he met these children, he would rape them.”
As well as the two arrests, police are also executing eight search and seizure warrants against four individuals under investigation.
The operations are taking place in the city of Sao Paulo and in Guararema, in the metropolitan region.
The mobile phone belonging to Lopes which was seized by police allegedly showed victims also from other states in Brazil and police are investigating with whom he was sharing this material.
« In addition to personal use, there is strong evidence that he distributed this content to other people, » added Ms Alexio.
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