Death of “Captain Adriano” Increases Anxiety Over Investigations of His Political Links

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The trajectory of former state police (PM) officer Adriano da Nóbrega, or Captain Adriano, had his last deed entangled under the same haze of mystery that followed him throughout his outlaw life. He was found in Esplanada, a town in the interior of Bahia, hidden in a farm in the countryside. At the site, the former PM’s 13 cell phones were seized in different rooms, as well as chip cards.

The farm is owned by a PSL city councilor, Gilsinho de Dedé, elected in 2016 with 885 votes. The party is the same that elected President Jair Bolsonaro, although Bolsonaro broke away from the party in November last year. Dedé denied knowing Nóbrega, who was accused of commanding the hired-killer group Escritório do Crime, which was linked to the murder of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in March 2018. Nevertheless, the former captain’s name is not listed in the records of the inquiry into Marielle’s death that are underway in Rio de Janeiro. Dedé was in Recife when the police operation to arrest Nóbrega took place.

The Escritório do Crime heads the Rio das Pedras militia, in the west zone of Rio, and had Ronnie Lessa as a member, accused of having fired the shots that killed Marielle and Anderson. Nóbrega, 43, found the time to hold his last birthday party in a luxury condo in Costa do Sauípe, in Bahia, last month. He rented a mansion for a month at a cost of R$1,000 (US$250) per day, according to the newspaper O Globo.

Upon learning of this, the civil police of Bahia surrounded the condo to arrest him on February 1st. But Nóbrega managed to escape, five minutes before the police arrived, leaving his wife and daughters behind. At the time, the police managed to seize a fake ID used by Nóbrega and his altered photo (he is shown with a beard on the document) was published in the press.

Nóbrega knew that the siege was closing in, with his name again in print. One day before fleeing Costa do Sauípe on January 31st, newspapers reported that in August 2019 the former PM, leading the Escritório do Crime, was behind a plan to kill prosecutor Simone Sibilio, one of those behind the investigations into the murder of Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes. However, his hunch was not that he would be arrested, but rather that he would be killed, as he told his attorney Paulo Emílio Catta Preta on Tuesday, February 4th.

This is where the questions about Nóbrega’s links and enemies multiply. Was the shooting really a witness elimination, or was there an actual exchange of gunfire, as claimed by the Bahian police? In a country where phony police operations are common, doubt has gained strength amongst those following the steps of the investigation into the murder of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes, and Nóbrega’s connections with the Bolsonaros. He had close ties with another fugitive, Fabrício Queiroz, who worked in the office of the then state deputy Flávio Bolsonaro. Nóbrega’s mother and now ex-wife also worked in Flávio’s office between 2007 and 2018.

On the other hand, the former state police officer who was part of Rio de Janeiro’s Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE) was an excellent marksman, which also fits the police’s version. Yet it is somewhat surprising that the police killed a criminal who played a key role in uncovering a large number of crimes, with international repercussions, and whose capture would represent a trophy for the police. The surprise is compounded by the fact that Nóbrega now decided to resist arrest after having been detained three times in the past, and that he had been advised by his attorney to turn himself in, as Catta Pretta told reporter Beatriz Jucá on Sunday.

Why did the former BOPE appoint an attorney to face judicial proceedings, and then decide to react to an operation in which he was most likely outnumbered? Nóbrega, who joined the State Police in 1996, and was promoted to BOPE in 1999, was charged with the murder of Leandro dos Santos Silva in 2005, for the attempted murder of rancher Rogerio Mesquita in 2008, and in 2011 for the same crime. He was arrested for all of these crimes, and subsequently released.

Questions will be directed to the Bahia police, headed by Governor Ruy Costa of the Workers’ Party, and to the courts of Rio, headed by governor Wilson Witzel. Both are President Jair Bolsonaro’s political opponents, who will also suffer some adverse consequences as a result of Nóbrega’s death.

Bolsonaro and his son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, still have in their past the public defense of Captain Adriano when he was arrested for murder in 2005. Nóbrega is also linked to Fabrício Queiroz, Flavio’s former chief of staff and currently on the run, who is charged with being the manager of the “splitting” salary kickback scheme in Flavio’s office. By late Sunday, no one from the Bolsonaro family, nor the Minister of Justice, Sérgio Moro, had commented on the matter.

In theory, the 13 cell phones, seized together with the chips at the farm where Nóbrega was shot, are the freshest clues to obtaining answers that clarify the investigations involving Adriano: from leading the militia in the west side of Rio, to money laundering, to commissioned murders. But in practice, there is doubt as to whether the connections that ensured him protection for his criminal activities will be known, or whether they will continue to weave threads that increase the web of his covert crimes.

Source: El País