Pictured on her Instagram profile—Paula Simões Assisi
Not every inheritance is a gift.
That can be said of Paula Simões Assisi.
A social media influencer with some 30,000 followers on Instagram, Paula Simões Assisi is alleged by police to have managed an international cocaine-trafficking network after her husband, Patrick, an ’Ndrangheta gangster, was imprisoned.
Investigators claim Paula and other relatives of Patrick and his father, prominent ’Ndrangheta figure Nicola Assisi, inherited a sophisticated network that moved tons of cocaine from Brazil to Europe.
The arrests of Nicola and Patrick Assisi were supposed to cripple the cocaine empire. Instead, investigators say, the empire became an inheritance.
Italian and Brazilian police joined forces in September for a sweeping operation against suspected ’Ndrangheta cocaine traffickers. Code-named Eredità — “Inheritance” — the investigation targeted relatives and associates of key figures in the organized crime syndicate, whose roots remain firmly planted in Calabria.
Pictured on her Instagram profile—Paula Simões Assisi
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The Assisi Network
Nicola Assisi, born in Grimaldi in Calabria, in 1958, and later established in Piedmont, emerged over decades as a major figure in the international cocaine trade. Italian investigations connected his trafficking network to ’Ndrangheta circles in Piedmont and Calabria.
Nicola’s son Patrick, born in Piedmont in 1983, became an important figure in the South American side of the operation.
Father and son were captured on July 8, 2019, in a luxury apartment at Praia Grande on the Brazilian coast. Their hideout was nothing short of a security fortress. According to Italian reporting on the investigation, authorities discovered reinforced doors, hidden rooms, surveillance equipment, weapons, cocaine, false documents, money in several currencies, and 28 cellular telephones. Investigators reportedly discovered equipment capable of reproducing seals used on shipping containers.
Police had touted the arrests as a devastating blow against ’Ndrangheta. They soon realized, however, that the commercial contacts, suppliers, financial arrangements, and transportation routes for mass cocaine dealing had remained intact.
Operation Eredità was designed to uncover a suspected international network of narcotics still trafficking from Brazil to Italy and other countries in Europe.
Nicola and Patrick Assisi
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From Influencer to Cocaine Peddler
Until her arrest in September, Paula Simões Assisi was best known for her Instagram posts. Garnering some 30,000 followers on the social media platform, she posted stylized photographs and videos of herself three to four times per week. The recurring subjects on her Instagram page were fashion and outfits, beauty and cosmetics, skincare advice and routines, and lifestyle commentary.
After her husband and father-in-law went to prison, Simões assumed an increasingly important role in the organization, say investigators. She is described, by police reports, to have been involved in discussions about cocaine purchases, financing, and the movement of narcotics.
Authorities allege that Simões was not simply preserving her husband's affairs while he was incarcerated, but became an important operational figure in the network that succeeded him.
Investigators allege that Nicola and Patrick Assisi continued to exercise influence from Brazilian federal prisons. The Assisis sometimes employed coded language in conversations with relatives. Cooperating witness Vincenzo Pasquino told investigators that members of the family communicated in Sinti—a centuries old language of gypsies.
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Lawyer Under Investigation
Among those arrested in the September raid was Patrick Raasch Cardoso, an attorney from Santos, Brazil, who had previously represented members of the Assisi family.
Brazilian and Italian investigators allege that Cardoso's role extended beyond conventional legal representation to encompass the financial and organizational affairs of the network.
The connection between Cardoso and the Assisis predates Eredità. Brazilian judicial records from an earlier money-laundering proceeding confirm that Cardoso represented Patrick and Paula Assisi before formally withdrawing from the case.
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Cocaine Cargo
The scale of the alleged trafficking operation was immense.
According to Europol, the central intelligence hub for European law enforcement, ’Ndrangheta used Brazil's commercial maritime infrastructure to move multi-ton quantities of cocaine across the Atlantic. Drugs were concealed in legitimate cargo of ceramics, timber, sanitary products, and food shipments.
Brazilian authorities say ’Ndrangheta was associated with at least 11 cocaine seizures in 2019 and 2020 totaling more than 4.6 metric tons—a street value of €885 million ($1 billion).
The Brazilian ports—Paranaguá and Santos—were among the logistical points identified in the investigation. Once cocaine reached Europe, the network allegedly relied on an established system of distributors, financial intermediaries and money-laundering mechanisms.
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Port of Santos in Brazil
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The ’Ndrangheta in Brazil
The case illustrates the international transformation of the ’Ndrangheta.
Although rooted in Calabria, the organization has developed networks far beyond southern Italy.
Previous Italian investigations connected the Assisi trafficking network with ’Ndrangheta structures in Piedmont and the towns of Platì and Rosarno in Calabria.
Investigators and cooperating witnesses have described contacts between Italian traffickers and Brazil’s powerful Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, one of South America's largest criminal organizations.
Brazilian reporting on Eredità says investigators believe Nicola and Patrick Assisi spearheaded the acquisition and export of South American cocaine.
Other relatives had already surfaced in investigations preceding Eredità.
Nicola's wife, Rosalia Falletta, and their daughter, Rita Siria Assisi, were prosecuted in Italy in the related Samba investigation. In March 2026, an Italian court sentenced Falletta to 10 years and eight months and Rita Siria Assisi to eight years and 10 months.
Another important figure is Nicola De Carne, Patrick Assisi's brother-in-law and Nicola's son-in-law. Investigators accused him of serving as an intermediary between people operating in Brazil and associates in Italy. He was sentenced in Italy in March to 14 years.
The picture that emerges from the various investigations is not of a conventional criminal organization. No titular head. No single boss. No way to take down the mafia by eliminating its top figure. Investigators see an increasingly complex criminal network of many key players across the Atlantic and beyond.
Operation Eredità brought together the Brazilian Federal Police and Italy's ROS Carabinieri, with coordination and cooperation involving Italian and Brazilian prosecutors.
Europol supplied operational analysis, intelligence packages, and financial expertise to trace suspected illicit money flows. Also assisting in the investigation was the ON Network, the European anti-mafia operational network led by Italy's Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, the DIA.
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Editor’s Note:
The web site for Europol is https://www.europol.europa.eu
The web site for the Brazilian Federal Police is https://www.gov.br/pf/en
The web site for the Carabinieri's anti-mafia department is https://direzioneinvestigativaantimafia.interno.gov.it/2022/ros-carabinieri-and-the-dia-seized-assets-for-a-value-of-over-1100000-00-million-euros/
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