A secret mission to recover thousands of guns from an airport in southern Brazil

Information about 156 crates filled with 3 500 firearms, stationed in Porto Alegre's shut down international airport leaked to local criminal gangs that would be planning an attack to seize them.

Volunteers initially called to save children from the floods discover as they are on their way to the location that they have been tricked by Taurus, international arms dealer, to transport the firearms to safety.

Taurus representative initially approached a group of friends offering their help as volunteers by requesting help to save children from the water.

The volunteers were then urged by the man to come with 4 boats and two trucks, so they mobilized their social media accounts, posting videos asking for help to rescue the children. They are then joined by a doctor and depart in the early morning to the meeting point, a remote gas station where their contact is waiting for them with a woman that starts of by presenting herself as a coordinator of volunteer action, before revealing the change of plans: “I work at Taurus, the rescue you will be doing is no longer of children but of firearms”.

Initially reluctant, volunteers are told it is too late to back down as they are in on a confidential mission and persuaded by the woman that this rescue was as important as saving children because it prevented the weapons from falling into the wrong hands. On their way to the airport submerged by water for the last two weeks, volunteers are told not to use their phones and not to make any sudden movements as snipers will be watching them throughout the operation.

Once at the international cargo terminal volunteers get organized to load the heavy boxes containing the lethal weapons on boats, but miscommunication results in the first trip to dry land only including unarmed volunteers, previously denied bullet proof vests and completely vulnerable. Federal police forces that only arrived afterwards were shocked to learn transport by boat had already begun, with civilians unprotected. Another volunteer reports being left alone to watch over stacks of boxes at the terminal, Taurus employees only telling him not to worry as a sniper was aiming in his direction.

Seeing the operation would carry through the night if nothing was changed, Taurus recruited more volunteers throughout the day without telling them what was inside the boxes. The last ones were nonetheless loaded in the heavily guarded truck after sundown and taken to an undisclosed destination.

Lastly, the initial group of misled volunteers, having sympathized with the federal police ensuring the security of the operation reported their confusion as they mistook the volunteers for Taurus employees given their involvement in logistics. Also, they observed how exhausted the armed forces seemed after they mentioned having been posted there for days.

After the event made the local news, Taurus factories, located 25km from the airport, say the handling of the cargo was made by properly trained Taurus employees and coordinated by the special operations commando of the federal police and Brazilian military. This conflicts with the multiple witness reports, images and videos of the volunteers, raising unanswered questions about the nature of the operation.