The decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which supported the operation launched this Friday by the Federal Police against the former governor of Rio de Janeiro Cláudio Castro (PL) and businessman Ricardo Andrade Magro, controller of the Manguinhos Refinery (Refit), points to signs of infiltration of the alleged scheme into federal bodies, including the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) and the Federal Police itself.
In the decision, Moraes reproduces excerpts from the PF representation according to which elements collected in Operation Zaqueu would indicate that the group’s activities “expanded to the corruption of federal public servants, as is the case of members of the ANP and federal police officers”.
The operation authorized by the minister targeted former governor Cláudio Castro, businessman Ricardo Magro and members of the Rio Judiciary. According to investigators, the group had structured a scheme of tax fraud, money laundering, currency evasion and corruption of state and federal public agents.
When pointing out suspicions about the Fadareis police officers, the representation points out that, after analyzing the cell phone of tax auditor Carlos França, evidence was found of the participation of a federal police officer in meeting the demands of Diego Gonçalves, identified as an intermediary linked to Refit.
The corporation also describes a set of technical elements that, according to investigators, point to the use of telephone lines registered in the name of dead people, devices used to hide identity and accesses linked to the PF’s own internal network.
According to the investigation, a telephone line used by a caller identified as “Márcio PF” was registered in the name of a person who had died since 2021. The account would have maintained frequent contact with a tax auditor investigated in the case.
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The representation also states that data provided by WhatsApp identified a connection to the investigated account made from an IP associated with the Federal Police. After a technical analysis of the corporation’s internal records, the investigators maintain that access would be linked to the functional login of a clerk stationed at the Nova Iguaçu Federal Police Station, in Rio de Janeiro.
According to the decision, the PF points out that clerks Márcio Pereira Pinto and Márcio Cordeiro Gonçalves participated in coordinating delegate Ricardo de Carvalho’s campaign in the 2022 elections. The investigation also mentions that both had corporate ties in the company MGM Transportes e Serviços Ltda., in which they appeared as partners.
Investigators claim that the elements gathered reinforce suspicions of police involvement in the alleged criminal scheme. According to the representation reproduced by Moraes, “evidence is accumulating” that the telephone line and WhatsApp account investigated “are being operated by the clerks Márcio Pinto and Márcio Gonçalves”.
The PF adds that the elements “significantly reinforce the evidence of a link between the line user and the Federal Police, corroborating the hypothesis of participation of a federal employee in the structure of the criminal organization being investigated”.
According to the investigators, “interactions via messages and calls with accounts associated with numbers registered in the name of deceased people” were also identified, which would reveal a “pattern of identity concealment” and reinforce the modus operandi adopted by the operators of the investigated line.
The decision also describes suspicions of closeness between the investigated group and members of the ANP. According to the PF, intercepted messages indicated negotiations to resolve pending regulatory issues involving distributors linked to the business group. In one of the dialogues cited in the representation, an interlocutor states that he would try to resolve issues in Brasília during a dinner with a “deputy director of the ANP”.
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The investigation maintains that the scheme reached several sectors in the State of Rio de Janeiro, including the State Finance Department, the State Attorney General’s Office, INEA and members of the Rio de Janeiro Judiciary. In one of the excerpts reproduced by Moraes, the PF states that the case represents the “most latent and successful front of spoliation of the State of Rio de Janeiro by organized crime in recent years”.
The case is being processed by the STF because the investigation was opened to prevent an investigation initiated under ADPF 635, known as ADPF das Favelas, an action in which the Court ordered the Federal Police to investigate criminal organizations with interstate operations and connections with public agents in Rio de Janeiro.
