Alleged Drug Dealing Influencer ‘Kitty of Crackland’ Arrested in Brazil

An Instagram model who allegedly moonlit as a crack dealer has been arrested in Brazil.

Authorities found 19-year-old Lorraine Bauer, who they claimed was known as the “Gatinha da Cracolandia” or Kitty of Crackland in Portuguese, with a backpack full of drugs in an apartment in the city of Sao Paulo.

Bauer’s lawyer has since denied that she sold drugs. But Brazilian authorities, who made the arrest in July, begged to differ.

They produced a series of undercover photos shot on June 23 and 24 in the notorious Cracolandia, or Crackland, neighborhood of Central Sao Paulo that they say show Bauer selling crack along with her boyfriend. Crackland is a lawless area of the city where open air drug sales and consumption are common.

“She acted as the leader of the drug trade. We have in each tent [in Cracolandia] an average of ten tables, which are rented from other drug dealers. And she was the leader of one of these segments, replacing her partner, who was also arrested for drug trafficking,” said Police Delegate Roberto Monteiro, according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo. “She boasts [on social media] a high standard of living, and all that comes from drug trafficking.”

Bauer and her boyfriend, André de Almeida, aka, “Japones” or Japanese in English, were two of 15 people arrested connected to the police's investigation in Crackland. It's alleged that she and Almeida made over $1000 a day, which she used to support her lavish lifestyle on social media.

Although her Instagram and other social media accounts have since been taken down, local news reported that she had over 50,000 followers and often posted photos of herself as a model. It's also been reported that she is a law student. 

Bauer's lawyers requested that she be given home-arrest so that she could care for her infant daughter. Her brother, Lorruam Bauer, who is also a fitness influencer, took to social media to claim that he and his sister lived a “comfortable life” supported by their mother, and now his sister will have “to pay for what she did.” 

But their life hasn’t been without tragedy. It’s been reported that their father was murdered in 2014. Her brother Lorruam suggested that the murder had an effect on his sister’s decision to get involved in crime.

“I took it one way...and she ended up taking it another way. That doesn't justify her attitudes, I always told her that, but in a way, it may have influenced them.”