Model shot 30 times in head after joining gang and switching allegiance

A notorious drug trafficker known as the "Blonde Devil" was brutally executed after allegedly switching allegiances between gangs.

Eweline Passos Rodrigues, 28, was gunned down on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her body dumped in the street, wrapped in a sheet and missing part of her head, following reports of heavy gunfire in the area. She was quickly identified by a large back tattoo filled with gang symbols. There is a travel advisory for Brazil due to violence and organised crime.

Her suspected defection made her a target for the Comando Vermelho (CV), who had previously killed three members of the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP) two months prior, and warned her that she would be next, reports the Daily Star.

Rodrigues once chillingly posted on social media: "I don't surrender alive, I only leave in a coffin."

She was wanted on three outstanding arrest warrants for drug trafficking and organised crime, and had already been sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, but was evading capture.

In 2023, she was reportedly found with seven kilos of cocaine, and in June this year, she was allegedly filmed shooting at police officers.

Born in Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil, she survived an attempted femicide in 2022 when her ex-partner allegedly stabbed her, puncturing her lung.

After fleeing to Rio de Janeiro, she joined the feared CV (Red Command) and soon began flaunting rifles and pistols on social media. However, she later defected, pledging loyalty to rival faction TCP (Pure Third Command).

After switching sides, she solidified her new allegiance with a gang tattoo sprawled across her back, as reported by NeedToKnow. Detectives suspect that she was intentionally singled out due to her shift in loyalty.

She was purposefully targeted by her former allies amidst the almost daily clashes between the two rival groups. Law enforcement is now on high alert for potential retaliatory violence following her death, as reported by Need to Know.

This incident follows the horrifying abduction, torture, murder, and decapitation of a pregnant teenager by a Mexican drug cartel, who left her severed head in a cooler as a chilling warning.

Noemi's severed head was found in Tabasco, a region plagued by escalating gang violence. This macabre find raises more questions about the unresolved abduction and murder of Irma Hernandez Cruz in Veracruz.

On Thursday, July 24, an abandoned white Styrofoam cooler was discovered on the Via Corta Cunduacan-La Isla highway, near the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco. Inside, officers uncovered a human head encased in a black bag, along with a menacing note from a local criminal group.