The Civil Police on Tuesday dismantled a financial system responsible for money laundering of the criminal faction Comando Vermelho (CV) which was commanded by Edgar Alves de Andrade, “Doca”, one of the main leaders of the criminal group, and by Carlos da Costa Neves, “Gardenal”, its main operator and confidant. According to the investigation, the sums collected through drug trafficking in the communities of Rio, São Gonçalo and Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais, were sent to two bank accounts in the town of Pontes e Lacerda, in Mato Grosso, a municipality close to the border region with Bolivia. The court ordered the kidnapping of several assets used by the gang, including two farms, 32 vehicles and the freezing of 600 million reais.
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It is suspected that rural properties located in Mato Grosso, including one with 183 hectares, were used in one way or another for CV’s irregular affairs. We already know that the project would have generated a value of around 630 million reais in two years. Some of this money was allegedly used to buy drugs, including cocaine, and to purchase weapons used by the faction. The investigation revealed that the sums collected by CV in Morro da Mangueira, Manguinhos favela, Final Feliz favela, Guadalupe, Complexo do Chapadão, Costa Barros, Complexo da Penha and Jardim Catarina, São Gonçalo, as well as Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, were deposited into accounts used by a farmer, in the town of Pontes e Lacerda. He and 24 others suspected of involvement in the scheme are under investigation. To execute 39 search and seizure warrants linked to the criminal group, the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police launched another phase of Operation Containment this Tuesday. The action involved police officers from the Police Station for the Repression of Organized Criminal Actions and Special Investigations (Draco/IE), responsible for the investigation, with agents from the Drug Repression Station (DRE), men from the Special Resources Coordination (Core), and units from the General Directorate of Specialized Police (DGPE), as well as with the support of the Civil Police of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso.
— Doca and Gardenal ordered that money collected through territorial exploration and drug sales be deposited by money mules. Everything was distributed between two current accounts intended for Mato Grosso. We managed to identify the owner of these accounts, who is an individual who uses the subterfuge of being a farmer, when in reality he is transporting this drug trafficking money, not only from Rio de Janeiro, but also from other states of the federation. And we are talking about one of the main money launderers of CV,” explained delegate Jefferson Ferreira do Nascimento, from Draco.
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According to the delegate, the material seized during the action will be analyzed and will be used to inform a new phase of the investigation.
— Now the investigation continues. We will now analyze this material that was seized so that subsequently, with the analysis of the violation of tax and banking secrecy, we arrive at arrest requests,” he said.
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According to the police, the investigation began a year ago after an exchange of information with the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf). The work was supported by the Financial Intelligence and Asset Recovery Committee (Cifra). The action reinforced the fact that the operation of the CV is not only supported by the sale of drugs, but mainly through a money laundering system, responsible for receiving, hiding, moving and reinserting illicit values into the financial system. The system used money mules: people linked to drug trafficking, extortion of residents and the operation of illegal services were used to make cash deposits.
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According to the Civil Police, the choice of Pontes e Lacerda as one of the CV’s main centers of financial concentration was due to its location close to Bolivia. In addition to the municipality of Mato Grosso, teams carried out searches and seizures this Tuesday in the capital of Rio; in the municipalities of Baixada Fluminense; in Silva Jardim, in the interior of Rio; and in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.
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