Retired military officer Ronnie Lessa was sentenced by the 5th Criminal Court, of the Federal Court of Rio, to six years and eight months in prison, initially in a semi-open regime, for smuggling firearms parts.
According to investigations, he bought the material online and sent it to his daughter, Mohana, in Atlanta, United States. She then sent the products to Ronnie, in Brazil.
According to the judge in the case, the following parts were imported between 2017 and 2018: the lower part of a rifle, an accessory for attaching a telescopic sight and a revolver stock. All imported without authorization from the Army.
Lessa has been in prison since 2019, suspected of killing councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, on the night of March 14, 2018, around 9:30 pm, on Rua Joaquim Palhares, in the Estácio neighborhood, central region of Rio.
The councilor was hit by four shots, one in the neck and three in the head. The driver, Anderson Gomes, was shot at least three times in the back.
Ronnie Lessa and former PM Élcio Queiroz are imprisoned in federal prisons, with Lessa in the Federal Penitentiary of Porto Velho–RO, and Élcio, in the Federal Complex of Papuda, in Brasília.
They are awaiting a popular jury, which has not yet been scheduled.
The process is the continuation of the seizure of parts from 117 rifles, which were found disassembled, in 2019, in the house of Alexandre Motta Souza, a friend of Lessa, in Méier, north of Rio. At the time, Lessa was identified as responsible for the arsenal.
Motta was acquitted in that process. The former PM, sentenced to 13 years and six months.
The M-16 type rifles were found in the week that Ronnie Lessa was arrested for the death of councilor Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, in March 2019, one year after the crime.
The weapons, new, were disassembled in boxes – only the barrels were missing.
Alexandre Motta, owner of the apartment where the weapons were found, told the police that Ronnie, his childhood friend, gave him the boxes and asked him to keep them and not open them.
Lessa had also already been convicted in August 2022 for international arms trafficking, due to the import of 16 rifle parts, which were seized five years earlier, coming from Hong Kong at Galeão International Airport, in Rio.
At the time, according to the PF, the materials would theoretically be sent to a gym, in Rio das Pedras, in the west zone of Rio, of which Lessa is a member, but the address indicated was Ronnie Lessa's apartment. The seized materials were “flame arresters”, used to reduce the flash generated when firing firearms. However, they are prohibited for use.
A CNN had access to the process where the Federal Public Ministry pointed out that in “WhatsApp conversations, held between RONNIE LESSA and her daughter MOHANA FIGUEIREDO LESSA, then residing in the United States, demonstrated that, at RONNIE's request, some artifacts were received by MOHANA in the United States United, unpacked, placed in another package and then sent to Brazil under evasive descriptions, without indicating exactly what the content of the order would be”, says the complaint.
The MPF also used the seizure of 117 rifles from Alexandre Motta's house as an “indictable” element, which had a warrant issued by the 4th Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro.
According to the case records, in 2022, federal judge Adriana Alves dos Santos requested the breaking of the telephone confidentiality of Lessa and her daughter, Mohama, to assist in the investigations.
In the sentence, magistrate Fernanda Resende Dominice highlighted that Lessa was an agent of the PM and that he should combat and prevent the commission of crimes, in addition to being fully aware of the need and prior authorization to carry out the imports, however, he chose to do so illegally. .
Lessa's daughter, who was also accused of being part of the scheme, was acquitted, after the court ruled that there was not enough evidence of her knowledge of the crime. In addition to being “completely possible” for her to imagine that her father, at the time a police officer, was authorized to make the imports in question, including advising her on the way in which they should be made.
Source: CNN Brasil
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