The Federal Police (PF), with support from the Internal Affairs Division of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), arrested eight PRF agents in an investigation into charging bribes to allow trucks with drugs to pass on some highways in the Northeast, especially in the state of Pernambuco. .
The operation, launched this Tuesday (23), also arrested a businessman and is searching for two intermediaries, who are considered fugitives.
The decision of the Federal Court is confidential, but the CNN found that the seizure of the suspects' cell phones and computers was also ordered, as well as the seizure of the agents' functional and personal weapons, uniforms, uniforms and badges, being “any item relating to the PRF”, according to the decision.
The investigation by the Office for the Suppression of Financial Crimes (Delefaz) of the PF of Pernambuco with the PRF Internal Affairs Unit identified that bribes were charged by agents ranging from R$50 to R$2,000.
And that the trucks with drugs used a code to be able to travel without supervision. The trucks had tachographs with specific words so the police knew that “this would be part of the scheme”.
The PF points out that bribes were also charged against motorcyclists, in small portions.
The investigation began after the seizure of 550 kilos of cocaine in the port of Natal (RN), in 2021. A year later, two businessmen were arrested and their cell phones were seized.
According to the CNN , the investigation into the prisoners' cell phones showed that there were conversations between businesspeople about paying bribes to three PRF agents from Pernambuco. The investigation then moved from Rio Grande do Norte to the PF Recife, which in May last year sealed cooperation in the investigation with the PRF and advanced the case.
In the conversations of the businessmen examined, there were also messages with a police officer and the subject was bribery. The investigation identified that there were more police officers involved, reaching a total of eight, whose arrest was ordered.
When contacted, the General Inspectorate of the Highway Police reported that it followed the entire process. But “by court decision, information regarding the operation is kept confidential”. The PF did not comment for the same reason as secrecy.
Source: CNN Brasil
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