PCC criminals prowled Moro’s house for a week, shows PF

Investigations by Operation Sequaz, which dismantled a plan to kill or kidnap Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), showed that PCC criminals prowled around his house in Curitiba for at least a week, at the end of last year.

The Federal Police tracked the cell phone signals of one of the men involved in the crime, called Claudinei Gomes Carias, also known as Nei, near the former judge’s house, between November 24 and December 1. According to the PF, monitoring of Moro by the PCC began much earlier, in September, during the election campaign.

The tracking of his cell phone was done through records of signal receiving antennas. It was proven that the suspect’s cell phone was very close to places frequented by Moro and his family for a continuous period of time. He probably watched over the senator and his family.

Near Moro’s residence, there is a club where the senator voted in the October elections, which was also visited by criminals in September. A few kilometers away is the law office of Federal Deputy Rosângela Moro (União Brasil – SP), his wife, where the members of the group also passed.

These details are in the PF’s request to arrest 11 PCC members involved in the plan. Claudinei, according to investigators, would be directly linked to the main person in charge of executing the attack against Moro, Janeferson Aparecido Mariano Gomes, also known as Nefo. He is described as head of “Restricta o5”, a group within the PCC responsible for killing authorities and former members of the faction.

The investigation began in February, with the testimony of a former member of the PCC who was under a death sentence. He sought out the São Paulo Public Ministry, which has been investigating the organization for some time, and said that there was an attack plan against Moro. He later denounced four cell lines of people who would be linked to Nefo.

It was from these cell phones that the PF unveiled details and involved in the plan to kill or kidnap Moro and his family. The devices were searched with judicial authorization and they found messages, audios, photos, notes that revealed how the attack could have been carried out.

One of the cell phones was used by Aline Ardnt Ferri, described as one of Nefo’s companions, and who was responsible for compiling information on Moro’s family. Inside her device there was a photo of a notebook page with notes, Moro’s personal data, addresses, the name of the couple of children, their telephone numbers and e-mail, in addition to details of their declaration of assets.

On the cell phone of another companion of Nefo, Aline Paixão, the PF identified messages in which he uses codes like “Tokio”, to refer to Moro; “Flamengo”, to refer to kidnapping; “Fluminense”, to refer to “action”, possible indication of murder, according to investigators; and “México”, which would designate “MS”, the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In another file on Aline’s cell phone, there were notes that would indicate, according to the PF, expenses for the eventual kidnapping of Moro. He would have expenses with rifle, rent, travel, cars and driver.

In another investigated cell phone, possibly belonging to Nefo himself, a photo was found of a sheet of paper with manuscripts recording expenses with “apartment, travel, food, fuel, farm rental, home furniture, vehicles (Hilux), mason for a safe (weapon stash), brother aids, approximate time and telephone number for work”. At the top of the page, the name of the city of Curitiba.

In a message, there is a detailed account of a location reconnaissance in Curitiba, an electoral college, which would be used for voting in the 2022 election, with a description of the accesses, existing cameras in the place, security and access route – it was the electoral section where Moro voted last year.

Investigated cell phone had account with “lulalivre” email

The PF managed to penetrate the cell phones from e-mail accounts registered on their respective telephone lines. One of the emails had the address “[email protected]”. “Lula Livre” was also a name and surname registered on the line’s handset. The PF, however, did not highlight anything relevant to the investigation in that account.

In the decision, federal judge Gabriela Hardt, who is overseeing the investigation, initially stated that “the email accounts linked to the IMEIs of the devices have [sic] varied names, corroborating the aforementioned practice of using registration on behalf of third parties to evade police investigations that lead to the qualification of criminals”. In other words, it says that not necessarily some of the emails were from users linked to Nefo. However, the codename’s connection to a member of the PCC is not ruled out.

Operation Minion

Operation Sequaz, which arrested 9 people this Wednesday (22) involved in the plan against Moro, was carried out by 120 police officers in Rondônia, Paraná, Federal District, Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. Another target of criminals was prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, who has been investigating the CCP for many years. The initial idea was to rescue the top leader of the PCC, Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola.

In 2018, Gakiya asked for Marcola’s removal from a state prison in São Paulo. In 2019, as Minister of Justice, Moro prepared the logistics to transfer him to the federal penitentiary in Brasília. Months later, he was sent to the federal prison in Rondônia and, earlier this year, he returned to the maximum security prison in Brasilia.

The report was unable to locate the suspects’ lawyers.