Glam influencer lawyer ‘on the run’ after drug trafficking kingpin accusations
A lawyer who has amassed a respectable social media following has been accused of leading a criminal drug trafficking organisation as an arrest warrant has been issued for her
Gabriela Serafin became a social media sensation after she shared her stories about drug trafficking(Image: serafingabriela /Instagram)
A glamorous lawyer who built a large social media following by sharing stories about drug traffickers and gangsters is now ‘on the run’ herself.
The lawyer quickly became a fugitive after a police investigation sparked accusations she was the mastermind of a criminal drug trafficking organisation. The case emerged in Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina state in southern Brazil, where prosecutors filed charges against Gabriela Vieira Serafin on 10 June.
The criminal lawyer, known online as “Advogata”, has more than 32,000 followers on Instagram. The glam lawyer gained her impressive following from posting slang-filled videos to explain criminal cases and life behind the scenes of the justice system. Investigators allege she was one of the leaders of a criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking in the Tapera area of Florianopolis. Serafin, 29, was one of the targets of Operation Quebra de Comando, launched by anti-drug officers in March following an investigation that lasted around a year.
Police said the operation sought to dismantle a criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking across the region. Officers carried out 30 search and arrest warrants and detained 15 people during the operation. Serafin was not found. She has been wanted by police since April after a court issued a temporary arrest warrant as part of an investigation into organised crime and drug trafficking.
Prosecutors have now formally brought charges, although the exact offences included in the indictment have not been publicly disclosed because the case remains under judicial secrecy. Investigators said they mapped drug-selling locations and identified traffickers, intermediaries and people allegedly responsible for the group’s logistics network.
Before becoming an alleged fugitive, Serafin regularly posted videos discussing cases involving drug trafficking and organised crime. In one video, she described a client who had allegedly been arrested while attempting to fly from Florianopolis to Paris with cocaine hidden inside a shoe.
The lawyer’s online popularity was largely built on her informal retellings of criminal investigations and court cases. Her defence team said it would not comment on the merits of the case because the proceedings are being conducted under judicial secrecy.
Lawyers representing Serafin said there has been no judicial conviction against her. They added the investigation is based on interpretations of conversations recovered from mobile phones seized from third parties and said there are no messages directly attributed to their client.
The defence also said police searched Serafin’s home but did not find or seize any illegal material. Her lawyers said any challenge to the arrest warrant would be made through the courts and stressed that only the judiciary can assess the evidence gathered during the investigation.
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