Driver Diner Loreto dos Santos (52 years old), who last Wednesday (12) spent nearly five hours tied to a trailer across the ring road, with a fake bomb next to his legs, said he did not remember when the supposed device was placed next to his body.
The accident closed the highway and blocked traffic that morning, until the truck was removed from the road, shortly after 10 a.m.
In an interview with the Domingo Espetacular program on TV Record, which was broadcast on Sunday (16), he stated that he did not remember the moment the bomb was planted. He said it was placed at the back of the cabin, where the bed used for rest was located. He said in the interview: “There is a curtain, I only heard the noise. (But) it was closed and I did not hear (anything else).”
The truck was crossed at kilometer 45 of the ring road, in Itapsirica da Serra, in a case that the police are treating as an attempted robbery.
“I was crying and coughing and couldn’t speak because of the gas,” Diener said in the interview, without specifying what type of gas he was referring to.
The truck driver had been traveling since October 12, when he left Cuatro Parras (PR), with a shipment of explosives that he took to Peru. On November 5, the return journey began.
According to Delegate Marcio Fruit, of the Taboão da Serra Police Station, investigators are retracing Diner’s steps to find out when the criminals were approached. The idea is also to find potential cars used to pursue Diner.
Diener told police he was driving on the highway when a passenger in a pickup truck lifted the bed of the truck, threw a rock, and hit the truck’s front window. He drove the car a distance until it stopped on his shoulder.
According to the report, at that moment the bandits approached – at least three entered the cabin.
The man said that once the bandits overpowered him, one of them took over the truck.
They asked the truck driver to contact the company. According to Diener’s account to police, he informed the employee who answered the call of the kidnapping, and that’s when the attack on him began.
The driver said in the interview with the TV program: “They kicked me a lot in the ribs, in the knee, stepped on my feet, and twisted my arms.”
According to police, when he was restrained in the cabin, the driver reported that he had heard that the truck would be used to transport weapons that were in the possession of criminals, including rifles and shotguns. The criminals also said they intended to go to the company, kidnap another employee and demand a ransom.
Diener said the bandits would abandon the robbery and escape.
He said that he hit his head on the asphalt when a member of the Military Police Gate (Special Tactical Operations Group), responsible for detonating the explosives, pulled him out of the truck.
“I felt my head hit the ground,” he said. “I thought a bomb had exploded.” The driver was taken to Itapecerica da Serra General Hospital disoriented.
When the military police rescued him, one of his hands was free. According to Deputy Fruit, other passing truck drivers were able to untie one of his hands.
He took a breathalyzer test, and the result was negative. “They asked me if I had taken alcohol or drugs. I don’t even drink,” said the driver, who wore a rock band T-shirt for the interview and stated that he was judged on his manner.
Civil police want to know if the man was attacked by freight gangs operating in the area.
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