Strange but True: Neymar branded cocaine capsules found in São Paulo

What happened yesterday is something to rival any of the other oddities that we like to post from time to time.

The arrest of a male suspect as part of an early morning drug haul in São Vicente, coastal São Paulo. Nothing uncommon in that. But this particular stash of cocaine was divided into handy easy to use capsules complete with nozzles and branded "Neymar". Yes, Neymar.

When questioned by police over the use of Neymar's image and the accompanying slogan "Boas Festas", the man explained that it served to highlight the product is of the highest quality.

Someone has been studying marketing..

A police picture of the offending capsules

VIDEO: Worms eat through people's heads in São Paulo anti-drug advert

The Crack Consome ad at the Galeria do Rock, São Paulo

O Crack Consome is a governmental campaign which was launched earlier this year to highlight the dangers of drug use in particular crack cocaine. It used shock tactics in São Paulo by using larvae to eat through the photos of people's heads from the inside.

Filmed at the Galeria do Rock in the centro region of São Paulo, the clip below shows how live worms were made to eat through the poster ads. It's not the most pleasant sensation as you watch them being devoured and transformed into scarred and holey looking people.  But the campaign did win the ad agency Talent a Cannes Lions Prize in 2013

Crack Consumes from Malabar Filmes on Vimeo.

The pictures were actually produced by printing on to dough rather than paper to give the worms an apetite.

São Paulo in Statistics: The city's top 11 problems according to its voters

According to Datafolha and looking ahead to the local elections, São Paulo's voters have named the top issues they perceive the city is facing. The biggest problems identified in order of importance are:

Health 26%

Security 16%

Public Transport 15%

Flooding 6%

Education 6%
Transport 6%

Waste / litter  5%
Pavements 3%
Drug trafficking 2%
Housing 2%

Unemployment 2%

This does away with the stereotype that drug trafficking are a major concern for São Paulo residents, in fact the state of the pavements are perceived to be a bigger problem.

Personally I was surprised to see flooding so high up but it is true that the city is badly prepared for the downfalls it receives and for those whose streets are regularly affected it presumably bounces straight to number one priority.

Also interesting for European (or North American) eyes is the fact that unemployment only just scrapes in to the list of problems. If the same survey was carried out in Italy, Spain, Greece or Portugal it would be interesting to compare the percentages..

Photos of São Paulo's Cracolândia past and present

Crack user in 2005

There is an infamous area in the historical centre of São Paulo which has become known as Cracolândia, the name being derived from the fact that since the nineties crack has been openly bought, sold and consumed in open air public spaces of this centro region.

Despite efforts by the authorities to "clean up" Cracolândia and gentrify the area, there has been little notable change. Agencia Luz has some powerful black and white photographs from 1995 to present day which illustrate this.

I wanted to share some of them here as most people would not contemplate going anywhere near this part of town and although there are plenty of snapshots professional photographs are rare. [Some photos are edited to protect the identities of those pictured]

Cracolandia 1995

A consumer of crack in Cracolândia 2008

Police crackdown on Cracolândia 2005

Cracolândia 2009