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. He was born to an unwed mother of Jewish origin. 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.
[edit] Israeli Army
He arrived in Israel right after the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. He started his military career as a private in the Army. Results of his aptitude tests amazed officers and instructors and he was interviewed for the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency. He was sent to the Midrasha (the Israeli Mossad training academy) where he completed the 6-month training course. This cannot be confirmed. If he did receive training it would be highly unusual as Mossad recruits older agents in their 20s who are commissioned officers in the Israeli military.
After Mossad training school, he was assigned to the Israeli Embassy in Sweden. He was next heard from in Syria when he was captured and Syaret Matkal commandos broke him out of a Syrian jail. This story cannot be substantiated. Paul's discussed a "missing five years" in his Mossad career. He will not say where he was.
[edit] Iran Contra Affair
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 Sao 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. Erika 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.
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 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 USA. 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 ditry 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 then 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 right now in Minas Gerais, Brasil. 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.
[edit] References
- He is discussed at length in the book Without A Badge by Jerry Speziale and Mark Seal.
