The Civil Police of São Paulo requested, on the afternoon of this Thursday, the 16th, the arrest of Corporal Denis Martins, aged 40, for the murder of Antônio Vinicius Lopes Gritzbach, whistleblower of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), executed in November 2024 at Guarulhos International Airport, in Greater São Paulo. He is named as one of the perpetrators of the shots that killed the businessman.
The arrest of two more people who helped Kauê Amaral Coelho, who acted as a scout on the day of the crime, was also requested in the escape and continues to help until now.
Martins was arrested this morning in an operation by the PM’s Internal Affairs Department. In addition to him, 14 police officers (see names below) who were part of the whistleblower’s escort, identified as illegal by the Public Security Secretariat, were also arrested. Not all of these agents, however, were there on the day of the murder.
The prisoners are:
- Erick Brian Galioni (soldier)
- Jefferson Silva Marques (soldier)
- Leandro Ortiz (corporal)
- Giovanni de Oliveira Garcia (1st lieutenant)
- Talles Rodrigues Ribeiro (soldier)
- Alef de Oliveira Moura (soldier)
- Julio Cesar Scalett Barbini (corporal)
- Abraão Pereira Santana (soldier)
- Samuel Tillvitz da Luz (soldier)
- Leonardo Cherry de Souza (corporal)
- Adolfo Oliveira Chagas (soldier)
- Wagner de Lima Compri Eicardi (corporal)
- Romarks Cesar Ferreira de Lima (cable)
- Thiago Maschion Angelim da Silva (1st lieutenant)
THE CNN tries to contact the defense of the 15 police officers. The space remains open.
Martins is in the custody of the Internal Affairs Department. The police said they are also investigating who the second shooter is, the possible relationship of another PM with the crime and the person who ordered it – the suspicion is that he is from the PCC.
The Secretary of Security, Guilherme Derrite, stated that these police officers were already being investigated by the PM’s Internal Affairs Department in a process initiated in April 2024, which investigates the involvement of security force agents with the PCC.
The investigation reached the military police officer identified as the shooter through facial recognition work based on images from the day of the attack. The 14 police officers on the escort had already been away since the time of the murder.
“We managed to identify, qualify and it was only time to ask the Court for the arrest of those who carried out this escort, which was an illegal escort, it is a service for a criminal, this can never be admitted. It is a service for an individual who was a defendant in a double homicide and had involvement with organized crime,” said Derrite.
In total, 14 preventive arrest warrants were served, one for temporary arrest (against the possible shooter) and another 7 for search and seizure at addresses in the capital and Greater São Paulo.
During the Internal Affairs operation, Denis Martins was arrested for participating in a preparatory crime. The arrest for homicide needed to be requested by the DHPP, which occurred this afternoon.
“He (the suspected shooter) was arrested for a predicate crime, a preparatory crime, which is provided for in the military penal code. He is suspected of the homicide and the investigation will be continued by the DHPP (Department of Homicide and Personal Protection, which is in charge of the investigation)”, said the PM inspector, Colonel Fábio Amaral, during a press conference.
When questioned, he stated that this predicate crime of criminal association with other military personnel would have been committed on the day of Gritzbach’s execution, November 8th. Interlocutors interviewed by the report said that this was a way to arrest the suspect without exceeding the competences of the Internal Affairs Department.
“With the arrest of one of the shooters, the investigation into the homicide and the mastermind will prosper very quickly. We have breaches (of telephone secrecy) that lead us to other people, who are not military police officers. As for the principals, we have two lines of investigation, both (that the principal would be a member of) the faction”, added Ivalda Aleixo, director of the DHPP.
On social media, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), said that misconduct will be severely punished and subjected to the rigor of the law. The execution of the whistleblower at the airport – accompanied by allegations of police links with the PCC – was one of the crises of the Tarcísio administration in the area of security in recent months.
The government has also been pressured by the increase in the number of deaths caused by PM. Among the high-profile cases are the murder of a medical student in a hotel in the south of São Paulo and a four-year-old boy in a favela in Santos.
This content was originally published in Police call for arrest of shooter and 2 suspects in death of PCC whistleblower on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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