Pre-candidate for the Roraima Senate, gold miner Rodrigo Martins de Mello, better known as Rodrigo Cataratas, is under investigation with his son, Celso Rodrigo de Mello, for helping former federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem to flee the country in September. The information was confirmed by Cataratas’ defense in the procedure, which remains confidential at the Federal Court (STF).
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The businessman is represented by lawyer Jeffrey Chiquini. In a post on The lawyer adds that he has evidence proving Cataratas’ innocence.
Last Saturday, Cataratas’ son was arrested in Manaus by the federal police following a decision by the STF minister, Alexandre de Moraes, in charge of the case. A few weeks earlier, the businessman had already spoken out on the networks after information began to circulate on the networks according to which he had helped Ramagem to leave the country.
— (Ramagem) has several friends in Roraima, and I am also his friend, right? He’s a federal MP, friends. During his last stay in Roraima, no conviction was handed down against him. So, this story of escape is a false story, precisely to maintain persecution – says Cataratas in the video published at the end of November, without confirming whether or not he was the subject of an investigation – We are all right-wing here and we are persecuted.
In the video, the businessman claims that he learned of Ramagem’s conviction through social networks and only when he was already abroad. On March 31, Cataratas published an image on his social networks alongside the then parliamentarian, whose mandate was revoked this Thursday.
“I had the honor of receiving in Boa Vista the federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem, a great ally of President Jair Bolsonaro and tireless defender of freedom and national sovereignty. We spoke about the direction of Brazil, the challenges of the 2026 elections and the strengthening of a political project aligned with the values of right, order and progress,” Cataratas wrote at the time.
According to Cataratas, Celso is an American citizen and was traveling to the United States to celebrate his own wedding, accompanied by his wife and daughter.
“The office of Rodrigo Cataratas specifies that, this Saturday, the Federal Police executed in Manaus (AM) an arrest warrant against Celso Rodrigo de Mello, son of Rodrigo Cataratas, as determined by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, as part of an investigation linked to the investigation into the alleged escape of federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem”, indicates the note published this weekend.
The prospector has business in Guyana, a country that was on Ramagem’s escape route to the United States, as revealed by GLOBO columnist Malu Gaspar. The PF investigation revealed that the federal deputy arrived in the neighboring country through the municipality of Bonfim, bordering the town of Lethem.
Currently, Rodrigo Cataratas is a pre-candidate for the Senate of the PRD. In 2022, he ran for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies for the PL, after declaring that he had saved BRL 4.5 million in cash. Its assets also include ten aircraft and eleven vehicles, totaling BRL 33.6 million. He is one of the leaders of the “Movimento Garimpo é Legal”.
In January 2024, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted the businessman suspected of setting fire to a car belonging to the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama) and of invading the federal police garage to set fire to an institute helicopter in 2021. Cataratas allegedly financed and encouraged the destruction of the equipment. Cataratas remains accused in three Federal Court cases relating to illegal gold exploration in Roraima. Like his father, his son Celso also had problems with the law. In 2022, he was arrested on suspicion of illegally exploring for gold on Yanomami indigenous land. He was released a few days later.
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