RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Arrested on Thursday morning, June 18th, in a house in Atibaia, São Paulo, owned by a Bolsonaro family attorney, former adviser Fabrício Queiroz was the main target of Operation “Anjo” (Angel), the second offensive by the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office (MP-RJ) in the case of the so-called ‘splitting’ kickback scheme in Flávio Bolsonaro’s office while he was a state deputy in Rio.
However, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, Judge Flávio Nicolau, of the 27th Criminal Court, also ordered the precautionary detention of Márcia Oliveira de Aguiar, Queiroz’s wife, suspected of having played a crucial role in the tactics to obstruct the investigations of embezzlement, criminal organization and money laundering.
According to the magistrate, it was clear that Marcia, while at large, could hinder the investigation of events, in addition to acting under Queiroz’s orders. In his decision, Judge Nicolau wrote that, like President Jair Bolsonaro’s #1 son’s former aviser, Marcia was also in hiding, being assisted by a third party, and would still contemplate fleeing should she learn that a warrant for her arrest had been granted.
Marcia has not been found and is considered by the MP-RJ as a fugitive from justice. Since Thursday morning, June 18th, police teams have been looking at addresses linked to her. Investigators in Rio reported on Friday, June 20th, that they will ask for her name to be included on Interpol’s Red Notices list.
“It can be inferred that the defendants Fabrício José Carlos de Queiroz and Márcia Oliveira de Aguiar provided fake addresses in the case files and their actions reveal a clear intention not to submit themselves to the Criminal Jurisdiction, with the risk of future application of criminal law being evidenced by the imminent risk of escape,” wrote the investigators in the representation for the launching of Operation Anjo.
The investigators reached Queiroz’s hiding place from Márcia – more precisely, from her cell phone. The device was seized in December last year, in the first MP-RJ raid as part of the investigation into the ‘splitting’ scheme. At the time, 24 searches were conducted.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the offensive surprised Marcia, who according to messages extracted from her cell phone, was scheduled to travel to São Paulo on December 18th, the date of the operation.
Marcia’s cell phone contained photos, sent by both Queiroz and the couple’s son, which featured Flávio Bolsonaro’s former adviser leading a comfortable and active life in the property of Fred Wassef, who calls himself an attorney and friend of the Bolsonaro family. One of the pictures captures the ex-police officer Queiroz in charge of a barbecue wearing a Vasco jersey, celebrating the relegation of (rival soccer club) Cruzeiro, holding a Corona with lemon and joined by his son’s friends.
Messages exchanged between Queiroz and Márcia in November 2019, one month before the first offensive by the MP-RJ, also showed that the couple were following the instructions of someone referred to only as Anjo. The surname baptized the operation held on Thursday, June 18th. According to the conversations, this individual also stated the intention to hide the entire Queiroz family in São Paulo. The texts show that Márcia initially found the idea excessive, but then agreed to flee should she and Queiroz have their arrests warranted.
Other conversations extracted from Márcia’s cell phone also showed that Queiroz, his wife and attorney Luiz Gustavo Botto Maia, also connected to the President’s eldest son, would have directed the mother of militia operative Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega, aka Captain Adriano, to remain in hiding. Márcia eventually visited the house where the mother of the head of the militia ‘Crime Bureau’ was staying in Minas Gerais.
Relations between Queiroz’s and Captain Adriano’s family extend further. The militiaman is said to have transferred over R$400,000 into the accounts of Flávio Bolsonaro’s former adviser. In addition, according to the MP-RJ, he was involved in an organized escape plan for the financial operator’s entire family.
The investigators also pointed out that the militiaman was part of the operational core of the embezzlement scheme at ALERJ, involving the group around then-deputy Flávio Bolsonaro.
Also from messages exchanged between Márcia and Queiroz, the prosecutors were able to find evidence of alleged influence of Queiroz on state militias. In conversations, the ex-adviser commits himself to personally intercede with militiamen in favor of a man who asks for his help after being threatened by paramilitaries in Itanhangá (a district of Rio).
Another object seized during the MP-RJ search last December at Márcia’s house, was a notebook with records of expenses by Flávio Bolsonaro’s former adviser for hospital bills and also on potential contacts with police and militiamen, should they be arrested.
The records showed that Queiroz received R$174,000 in cash, of unknown origin and paid the expenses of the Albert Einstein hospital, where he underwent cancer treatment. The contacts of Leonardo and Aroldinho Federal Police in the notebook led the prosecutors to ask the courts to send the ex-police officer to Bangu, instead of the Special Prison Battalion of Rio’s State Police, since the officers identified could, in theory, simplify Queiroz’s life in prison.
A former Rio Legislative Assembly employee, Márcia was one of the advisers linked to the office of the President’s son, who allegedly transferred part of her salary to Queiroz. According to Rio’s MP, her husband received R$2,039,656.52 from 11 ALERJ employees.
Márcia would have deposited R$445,000 of the R$1.1 million she received in salary from the Legislative House into Queiroz’s accounts. The amount transferred is only less than the funds transferred by the couple’s daughter, Nathalia Melo de Queiroz, who deposited in her father’s accounts some R$663,000 of the R$774,000 she received in salary from ALERJ.
Despite not representing Queiroz, Fred Wassef, Flávio Bolsonaro’s attorney and owner of the property where the former State Police officer was arrested, said in April that the reason for the deposits by the former deputy’s relatives in his account happened because the father managed the funds.