Brazil's STJ rules drug lookout liable as trafficker

The Quinta Turma of Brazil's Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) held that a person acting as a lookout or vigilante during a drug sale is a co‑author or participant in the trafficking crime, not merely a collaborator under article 37 of the drug law. The decision upheld a lower‑court conviction of the lookout for privileged trafficking and rejected the Goiás Public Defender's appeal to reclassify the conduct as peripheral collaboration. The case stemmed from a video showing a drug transaction on a street in Goiânia, where police identified a seller and a man standing beside him monitoring the scene. The ruling clarifies that active surveillance integral to the sale falls under article 33, the primary trafficking provision.