Greed and Irresponsibility: The story of Cracolândia’s golden girl

On Thursday morning, September 22nd, 19 year old Lorraine Cutier Bauer Romeiro was arrested for drug trafficking in the very center of São Paulo, known as “Cracolândia” The young woman is currently on probation, issued by the Brazil Urgent, a journalistic television program aired by Rede Bandeirantes. Soon enough, more information on the final decisions of the court on her jail sentence will be available to the public. But how exactly did this beautiful and impressionable girl get herself into such a dreadful and unfavorable situation?

Lorraine lived with her mother in Alphaville, Barueri most of her life, where she attended a public elementary school and was popular among her friends and neighbors. She maintained a positive reputation around her neighbourhood and was seen regularly walking around her house alongside her mother. She had grown especially close to her mother after the loss of her father, Ricardo Bauer, who had a criminal history with drug trafficking. The disappearance of a father figure in Lorraine’s life at the young age of 12 took a gravitational toll on her mental health, and stimulated her involvement with drugs. It was then that Lorraine began immersing herself in crowds full of negative influences and began having behavioral issues at school. Soon enough, she met a drug dealer in the central region of São Paulo, André Almeida, who became an alternative male figure in her life, quickly and easily replacing her late father, which facilitated her transition into the criminal world, along with the easy money and her quickly developing relationship with Almeida did too.

Eventually, Bauer and Almeida got extremely close, and worked alongside each other selling drugs, and developed a tight bond of trust. Not too late after, nonetheless, her partner was accused of drug trafficking and put into prison. Consequently, Lorraine took over all the commerce, and became a female, 19 year old Pablo Escobar. She was essentially leading a drug empire in the middle of “Cracolândia”, where she was respected because of her looks and charm. She quickly developed a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle, all supported by one thing; selling drugs. Still, like everything in life, the actions Lorraine took did indeed have consequences; in fact, ones extremely detrimental to the carefree and essentially “too good to be true” lifestyle she had been sneakily leading. Lorraine was arrested in André Almeida’s house in Barueri by a 77 Police District team and admitted to being guilty of involvement in trafficking, providing the police with the address of the building where she stored the drugs she sold: Helvétia road, Cracolândia. The building was promptly investigated and 85 portions of marijuana, 295 of cocaine and 8 of crack, 97 bottles of perfume launchers, 16 bottles filled with ecstasy, synthetic drug pills and R$750 Brazilian Reais were found and seized, all property of Lorraine and her partner.

New information is coming out daily on Lorraine Bauer; she’s featured in interviews and gains an increasing amount of attention from the media. A wide range of aspects to this story is becoming available to the public, varying from pregnancy rumors to her brother posting videos speaking about how he believes his sister “always had a good life, a good family, who supported her, who gave advice, but ([she]) ended up getting involved with the wrong people and ended up making the wrong choices. Now she's going to pay for what she did, us, her family, there's no way she's going to rub her head." The short, sweet moments of bliss and riches that the criminal life provided for her do not compare to the upcoming miserable life that she will lead, paying for her actions in a four wall jail cell.