Former military police officer Wanderlan Limeira de Sousa (featured photo), aged 44, died Tuesday afternoon (12/16) at the Patos Regional Hospital, in Paraíba, he was under arrest. The man was identified as the main coordinator of a criminal organization specializing in public tender fraud in different states of the country.
According to the federal police, Wanderlan was at the head of a sophisticated system that had been operating since at least 2022 and which took on a national dimension after the investigation into the 2024 Unified National Competition (CNU).
Investigations indicate the group sold endorsements in high-level competitions and relied on a family structure that investigators found functioned as an internal protection mechanism.
In addition to the CNU, there are signs of fraud in the competitions of the Civil Police of Pernambuco, the Civil Police of Alagoas, the Federal University of Paraíba, the Caixa Econômica Federal and the Banco do Brasil.
In some of these competitions, Wanderlan himself was approved, including the classification for the position of labor inspector, with a starting salary of more than R$22,000.
The PF claims that at least four members of the family were part of the core of the criminal organization. Among them, the brothers, the son and the niece of the former police officer, whose answers showed an absolute coincidence of successes and errors in the various tests, which is considered statistically impossible by the experts interviewed as part of the investigation.
One of the cases that caught the attention of researchers concerns a candidate successful in at least 14 public competitions in different fields, such as medicine, law and control.
With a long criminal record, Wanderlan was already responsible for murder, aggravated robbery, embezzlement, concussion, abuse of authority and use of false documents.
For the Federal Police, the knowledge acquired during its time working in the Military Police was used to structure the criminal system, with particular attention to the concealment of evidence.
The intercepts show he systematically deleted messages and discussed strategies to hinder the progress of investigations.
Even after his son’s arrest in 2024, during an operation by the Paraíba civil police investigating fraud in a prime ministerial contest, Wanderlan reportedly retained an active role.
In intercepted dialogues, he appears to debate ways to attribute responsibility for the scheme to third parties, including a now deceased drug trafficker.
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