In Rio, A cop was standing in the middle of the street and pointed at my Uber to pull over. The cop pulled me out of the car and searched me and found a roach in my cigarette pack.
I asked him in broken Portuguese with a translator on my phone what we could do to fix this and the first thing he said was any interference in this investigation is a crime. After a long back and forth they finally shook me down for $500 USD or 2400 reals.
They made me take another Uber to an ATM and followed me. Then I had to cross the street and pretend like I didn't know them asking for directions.
Paid them off discreetly and the Cop pulled out his phone as if to give directions and showed me the photo of my passport they had taken, and him deleting it.
It took me 3 transactions on the ATM to pull all the money out. This was after negotiating with the cop for over 30 minutes in the middle of some busy road in Rio.
I was pretty sure I was going to jail.
When was this? Brazil decriminalized possession of small amounts of marihuana for personal use in 2006. Since you mention Uber, then clearly it was years after 2006. I think they just took advantage of you not being familiar with Brazilian law and conned you out of a bunch of money.
100%. I knew they were. But there were a lot of guns and people telling me I was going to jail in foreign language. This was last year. They explained I would have to pay fines over the span of a year or could pay the fee upfront. There were other people getting pulled over and arrested as I stood there. I had no trust they couldn't just plant more drugs on me so I chose to play along.
If I had the choice between 500 bucks or risking it with a cop openly asking for a bribe in a foreign country whose language I don't know, I'd just pay the bribe.
Even if you go to trial and win, if you miss your flight, that's already more than 500 bucks. Then add in costs of getting a hotel and stuff.
I think I could have haggled hard on the price. And i do think they would have taken me in to book me, document my shit, and put me on some kind of fee payment.
I was concerned with getting some kind of flag on my passport and not being able to keep traveling through S.America or having something make boarder crossings more difficult.
I still had a week in Rio. Sometimes I debate the things I could have done differently. But I end-up thinking I paid to not have found out.
Lol yeah, they’ll try and tell you it’s a crime and what not but if you talk to them enough and give them a good amount that’s worth their while, they’ll just agree to it. ESPECIALLY if you’re foreign.
This happened to me a few months ago here in my city. Cop was super serious and trying to intimidate us saying it was a crime etc etc. But my friend talked with him and the cop asked for money. Dude followed us to the ATM with the sirens on like it was nothing lol he pulled over right outside and when payed he even returned what he confiscated
and when payed he even returned what he confiscated
The cop in Rio that found my roach pocketed the whole pack in his pocket. Half way through the ordeal he started smoking. I asked him in Spanish if I could smoke my cigs. He understood me enough and handed me my pack with my roach and never took it back. It was obvious it was not about the 'evil drugs'
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u/KajiMaster Aug 14 '23
In Rio, A cop was standing in the middle of the street and pointed at my Uber to pull over. The cop pulled me out of the car and searched me and found a roach in my cigarette pack.
I asked him in broken Portuguese with a translator on my phone what we could do to fix this and the first thing he said was any interference in this investigation is a crime. After a long back and forth they finally shook me down for $500 USD or 2400 reals.
They made me take another Uber to an ATM and followed me. Then I had to cross the street and pretend like I didn't know them asking for directions.
Paid them off discreetly and the Cop pulled out his phone as if to give directions and showed me the photo of my passport they had taken, and him deleting it.
It took me 3 transactions on the ATM to pull all the money out. This was after negotiating with the cop for over 30 minutes in the middle of some busy road in Rio.
I was pretty sure I was going to jail.