The Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro and the Civil Police launched this Wednesday (11) the second part of Operation Caligula, against a gambling network, allegedly led by Rogério de Andrade.
In it, according to investigators, former military police officer Ronnie Lessa, accused of having executed councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL) and her driver, Anderson Gomes, in 2018, was one of the leaders.
This time, 24 search and seizure warrants were issued for 19 addresses of companies linked to the accused, in addition to five individuals. The investigations of the investigators indicate that all these legal entities are a facade and exist to guarantee the money laundering of the resources raised by clandestine bingos.
For the first day of operation, 29 arrest warrants and another 119 search and seizure warrants were issued. There were 30 denounced accused of crimes of criminal organization, active and passive corruption and money laundering. In all, 14 people were arrested. Among them, two delegates from the Civil Police, both licensed: Marcos Cipriano, advisor to the Energy and Sanitation Regulatory Agency (Agenersa) and Adriana Belém, dismissed this Wednesday from the position of advisor to the Municipal Sports Department (SMEL).
The investigation points out that Andrade and Lessa were responsible for a criminal organization that operated clandestine bingos and had the coverage of corrupt police, through the payment of bribes. In a press conference held on Tuesday, prosecutor Diego Erthal said that one of the hypotheses of the investigation is that Rogério Andrade is the mastermind behind the councilwoman’s murder.
delegates involved
The MP-RJ states that delegate Marcos Cipriano mediated a meeting between Lessa and Adriana Belém, then delegate of the 16th DP (Barra da Tijuca), for an agreement that would have enabled the return of 80 slot machines that had been seized in the opening day of a bingo. At the delegate’s house, R$ 1.76 million in cash were found. The operation also seized 107 slot machines, 17 cell phones and five notebooks.
Adriana Belém left the Civil Police Internal Affairs Office, in downtown Rio, on Wednesday morning, taken by two civil police officers in a vehicle to the Legal Medical Institute (IML). From there, she goes to the Oscar Stevenson Penal Institute, in Benfica, Central Region. The female triage unit works as a gateway to the Rio de Janeiro prison system. She is scheduled to undergo a custody hearing later this Tuesday.
Deputy Marcos Cipriano was taken on Tuesday night (10) to the Bangu 8 prison, in the Gericinó Penitentiary Complex, in the West Zone of the capital. He underwent a custody hearing, which found no irregularities in the prison. Agenersa, where Cipriano worked, said that it does not comment on judicial decisions and that the facts are not related to the agency’s activities.
Cipriano’s defense criticized the client’s arrest: “It is absolutely unnecessary and outrageous the legislation, which requires the facts to be contemporary, and it is strange for an arrest to be decreed for facts that occurred in 2018. His innocence will be proven in court”, he said, through note.
The defense of Adriana Belém, in the same vein, claimed not to see the need for arrest and analyzes the possibility of filing a habeas corpus, “since the Public Ministry requested the arrest even before the counting of values was concluded, prematurely, and without not even give her a chance to explain herself, which will be done later,” he said, also in a note.
Source: CNN Brasil
