Investigation points out that a city in MA with only 39,000 residents would have extracted 540,000 teeth to receive funds from the rapporteur’s amendments.| Photo: Federal Police/disclosure

Eleven search and seizure warrants and the blockade of R$ 1.8 million are carried out by the Federal Police and Comptroller General of the Union, this Thursday morning (2), in four cities in the state of Maranhão.

The action is part of Operation Tira-dente, which investigates a group suspected of manipulating data from the Unified Health System (SUS) to expand the transfers of Union rapporteur amendments.

According to the investigations, the group acted mainly in the municipality of Pedreiras, a city of just 39,000 inhabitants where more than 540,000 dental extractions would have been carried out in 2021 alone – the equivalent of 14 teeth for each resident. The fact was widely used in the 2022 election campaign to criticize the amendments, which became known as the “secret budget”.

In addition to Pedreiras, the operation also targets targets in Bacabal, Lago do Junco and Lago dos Rodrigues, investigating other outpatient procedures that would have been manipulated, “which may have had an impact on raising the ceiling for the transfer of federal funds in the subsequent year”, he says. the corporation.

Investigations with the CGU identified suspected fraudulent hiring by the municipality of Pedreiras, as a means of disposing of improperly received funds. According to the agency, the investigated company is one of the ones that received the most public funds between 2019 and 2022 in the state, with more than R$ 16 million in transfers.

According to the PF, the suspects are being investigated for entering false data, bid fraud, contractual overbilling, embezzlement and money laundering.