Lucas Costa Melo

Lucas Costa Melo (b. 27 December 1972 in Recife) is a Brazilian Canadian organised crime figure who was Capo (leader) of the British Columbia Cartel, Canada's largest and most powerful drug trafficking organisation from 1999 until his arrest in Oceanside, California in September 2011. He was succeeded by his former top lieutenant Coba Castro, who was suspected by some sources of having arranged Costa Melo's exposure to the authorities and resultant arrest while in California. Following his arrest and replacement by Castro, at least twenty of Costa Melo's former senior lieutenants and enforcers were executed by the cartel on Castro's orders. The possible conspiracy plus the subsequent executions has led some to label Castro's accession to power as a coup.

Costa Melo has been incarcerated at the Kingston Institution since the summer of 2011, a federally administered maximum-security prison located near Kingston, Ontario in Frontenac County. His trial is ongoing and consists of several distinct charges: as of April 2021, Costa Melo has been convicted of six counts of conspiracy to murder, one count of drug trafficking and two counts of passport fraud; Costa Melo has also been charged with two more counts of conspiracy to murder, one count of money laundering and one count of wire fraud, for which he is currently awaiting trial. Thus far, Costa Melo has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Despite multiple offers of first plea deals, then a reduced sentence, extra privileges and more, to date Costa Melo has not cooperated with the investigation into the Cartel, at times even attempting to sabotage the investigation, having only ever revealed to detectives information which turned out to be false. He remains married to his wife Mia, who raises their three children in Toronto, visiting her incarcerated husband regularly.