Ecstasy Lands Brazilian Elite in Jail

Brazil’s battle against the rising use of Ecstasy has shifted from the slums to the upscale suburbs, the New York Times reports. Now university-educated “playboys” are targets of drug enforcement officials out to stop dealing in the pulsing rave scene. Last week, federal police officers arrested and charged 55 people, many from posh Rio de Janeiro, for smuggling Ecstasy.

Offenders often bribe officials for lighter charges. “The playboys think since they have money they are above the law and that nothing will affect them,” said one jailed convert. But those who serve time—many likely innocent, but unwilling to pay police—can end up turning to crime. “I was treated like a hardcore criminal and put in jail together with killers, kidnappers, you name it," one wealthy playboy said.
(More Brazil stories.)