Listed as ()’s option for the dispute, the vice-mayor of, Colonel Mello Araújo (PL), claims there is political exploitation by the governor (Republicans) and the mayor () due to.
In an interview with SheetMello Araújo highlights his work to put an end to the concentration of drug users in the center, says there was a scheme to divert resources intended for drug addicts during the Nunes administration before he became vice-president and calls a statement by Tarcísio, who stated that the “fatal blow” against the flow was the eviction of the Moinho favela, 2 km away, a “great deception”.
In a statement, the city hall and state government stated that they work together. The Nunes administration says that, with health, assistance and security actions, it carried out thousands of approaches, arrests and closures of businesses linked to crime and expanded services to users in the region by 96%. The Tarcísio government states that the actions at Moinho led to a reduction in trafficking in the region, facilitating this service.
Chosen by Bolsonaro to be Nunes’ vice-president in the last election, Mello Araújo said at the end of August, after four hours of visiting the former president under house arrest, that his political godfather. Regarding his candidacy in 2026, he states that Bolsonaro is the one who will decide his future.
Since taking office, the vice-mayor, a retired Military Police colonel and former Rota commander, has participated in city hall actions in Cracolândia. In May, the concentration of users on Rua dos Protestantes, close to Luz station, dissipated.
On the 13th, when the dissipation completed six months, Tarcísio made a post on his social networks praising the change. “Yes, Cracolândia is over,” he wrote. The post once again highlighted the region in the news.
The flow had, according to city hall data, around 400 simultaneous users consuming drugs. After the end of the concentration, in the center.
A report shown by TV Record last Sunday (16), in which Tarcísio explained the reasons for the end of the flow without mentioning the vice-mayor, triggered Mello Araújo’s reaction.
The colonel told the Sheet that there was a deliberate action by entities contracted by the city hall to not welcome drug addicts. They were paid both for having inpatient spaces available and occupied — and, according to him, it would be more profitable to keep the spaces free.
“As the city hall pays for the full vacancy, what is best for the entity? The ideal situation is, if you have 60 beds, you get paid for 60 beds, but only use 20”, he said. “What did we detect? That there were people with vested interests.” He said that the case is being investigated by the CGM (Municipal Comptroller General).
According to Mello Araújo, there was a network of ghost employees in the medical care service. “No Caps [Centros de Atenção Psicossocial]where people were hospitalized, we discovered 34 doctors who weren’t going to work, who didn’t exist. R$368 thousand in payroll that we paid, and it is being investigated, because I asked for it to be investigated. Who was this money going to?” he said.
In a statement, the Nunes management confirmed both investigations. In the case of the entities, he stated that, still in April, he identified “five irregular services and took immediate measures, including canceling the contract”. In the case of doctors, he said that the professionals worked under the legal entity model, receiving payment only for the days worked, and that there was no irregularity.
Nunes and Tarcísio have been responsible for Cracolândia since 2021 and 2023, respectively. Mello Araújo has been in the role for 11 months. He states that he coordinated fundamental changes to the disappearance of the flow, such as the end of the distribution of lunch boxes on site, and that he began to demand more rigor in the fulfillment of contracts from third-party entities.
Furthermore, according to the vice-mayor, his and his team’s constant presence made field agents feel more valued, which resulted in increased productivity. “Many people didn’t believe it, they even said that I was drying ice and that it wouldn’t do anything,” said the colonel.
In the interview with TV Record, Tarcísio linked the eviction of the Moinho favela, still in progress, to the reduction in flow — which Mello Araújo disputes.
“When we entered Moinho, we dealt the fatal blow to Cracolândia, because we closed the supply channel, we changed the logistics”, said Tarcísio, in the interview.
Mello Araújo attacks the governor’s version, who was Bolsonaro’s minister. “You see that they are people you don’t know. They say: ‘the fundamental thing was the Moinho favela’. Then you Google it: when did people start to be removed from the Moinho favela? When did the negotiations start? You will realize that it was after the emptying [do fluxo]. There was no one left in Cracolândia when people started to be removed from the Moinho favela. So, this is a big mistake, for you to say that the fatal blow was the Moinho favela.”
The eviction of the Moinho began at the end of April, but gained traction in the following weeks and .
The Nunes and Tarcísio administrations did not comment on the omission of Mello Araújo’s name in the publicity of the region’s actions. The mayor and governor’s teams highlighted that the arrest of Leonardo Monteiro Moja, Leo do Moinho, appointed as head of drug trafficking in the region, took place in August 2024, before the colonel took office.
In its note, the Nunes administration listed services that began before Mello Araújo’s period, with the installation of a SIAT (therapeutic reception service), the Crack and other drug care Hub and a Caps opened specifically to serve the flow. “This unit alone recorded a 96% increase in visits from 2023 to 2024 — from 552 to 1,081”, says the text.
The Tarcísio administration said that it operates “by sharing information, which contributed to the extinction of the main open drug use scene in the central region.” The work “based on investigations, intelligence actions and permanent action by security areas” resulted in the emptying of the area, states the note.
The text also says that the resettlement work in Moinho began in 2024, with the registration of families and that “investigations showed that the place functioned as a strategic warehouse for drug trafficking, supplying the open scene of use”.
“Since 2023, more than 35,000 people have been treated at the Crack and other Drugs Care Hub and another 29,640 referred for care at other facilities”, says the text, which also states that “between May and September 2025, there was a 63% reduction in robberies and almost 30% in thefts compared to the same period in 2022”.
