RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The money trail followed by the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro reaches the hands of a former BOPE officer.
He is the former captain of the Rio de Janeiro State Police, Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega, accused of being the leader of a militia and the criminal group known as the ‘Escritório do Crime’ (‘Crime Bureau’). He has been on the run since January.
The ties linking Nóbrega to the first-born of the Bolsonaro clan are familial and financial. His ex-wife and mother worked in Flávio’s office, when he was a state deputy. It is suspected that both were ghost employees.
In addition, the prosecutors believe that the militiaman was directly benefiting from the splitting scheme (the kickback of a part of the employees’ salaries) that allegedly occurred in Flávio’s office (something that the senator has always denied).
In a WhatsApp message exchanged with his former partner, the militiaman said he was “counting” on the money she passed on to Fabrício Queiroz, then an advisor to the deputy and the alleged operator of the scheme.
The president’s son’s admiration for the former officer is not new.
In 2005, when Nóbrega was serving a sentence for the murder of a car attendant who denounced the practice of extortion by State Police officers (MPs), he was awarded the Tiradentes Medal from the deputy, one of the highest honors granted by the Rio Legislative Assembly.
Later, the MP was cleared of all charges by an appellate court and was set free.
Nóbrega’s career in the police, which he joined in 1996, seemed bound to succeed. Athletic in stature, he excelled in handling firearms and took several training courses, among them as a sniper specializing in the Special Tactical Action Group of the São Paulo State Police. He was considered a “good killer.”
It was these same useful skills to the Public Security agent that aroused the interest of bookie Waldomiro Paes Garcia, known as Maninho. At the time he was the patron of the Salgueiro samba school and one of Rio’s most feared racketeers, also responsible for the million-dollar slot machine business in Copacabana.
Initially, Nóbrega worked as a security guard for the bookies’ relatives. It was during this time, transitioning between the job of police officer and bouncer that the BOPE officer met police officer Fabrício Queiroz (who would later become Flávio Bolsonaro’s advisor).
The two were stationed at the 18th Police Battalion in Jacarepaguá, and both are still being investigated for the death of Anderson Rosa de Souza in May 2003, in Cidade de Deus. It is suspected that the case is related to the refusal to pay a kickback for a dance hall in the community.
The friendly relationship between Nóbrega and Queiroz has endured. Flávio’s advisor hired his ex-wife and the militiaman’s mother to work in the deputy’s office.
Everything was going well for Captain Adriano, as he was known, until the dispute over the territories of the ‘jogo do bicho’ (illegal numbers racket) changed the setting of crime in Rio. In 2004, Maninho, his informal boss, was gunned down when leaving a gym in Jacarepaguá, west side of Rio.
The following years are of war within the Garcia clan, with the beginning of a fratricidal dispute over the bookie’s assets and millionaire schemes. The former bookie was not left out of the battle for power, and he is credited with several homicides that occurred during the period. In 2014 he is expelled from the corporation for his “informal work” for bookies.
Out of the PM, Nóbrega plunged headlong into the world of crime.
His career as a hired killer seemed to have come to an end, but a new venture was taking off. According to the Rio de Janeiro state Prosecutor’s Office, he began organizing and leading one of Rio’s main militia groups and the outlaw Crime Bureau, with a presence in several neighborhoods in the city’s west zone.
In addition to extortion, the sale of illegal TV connections and gas cylinders to residents, his militia is also suspected of providing gunmen services: the Civil Police is investigating whether retired sergeant Ronnie Lessa, the main suspect of the death of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in 2018, had ties to the group.
Investigations suggest that the tentacles of the Nóbrega militia are numerous. They extend even to the real estate sector – the buildings that collapsed in the west side of Rio in May this year are said to have been built by the criminal group.
From Jacarepaguá, through the rubble of Muzema to Rio’s Legislative Assembly, the BOPE officer is back to haunt the Bolsonaro clan.
Source: El Pais