Brazil assassination plot targeted in massive police raid

Federal police raided locations in several states to crack down on a crime gang accused of plotting assassinations and kidnappings of public officials including a former judge who presided over Brazil’s biggest corruption case

Brazil Police Assasination Plot (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Federal police raided locations in several states Wednesday to crack down on a crime gang accused of plotting assassinations and kidnappings of public officials including a former judge who presided over Brazil’s biggest corruption case.

About 120 agents carried out 24 search and seizure warrants and 11 arrest warrants in the states of Sao Paulo, Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondonia, police said in a statement, which did not name the suspects or their intended targets.

A Federal Police official confirmed that one of the targets was Sen. Sérgio Moro, who as a judge presided over the Carwash bribery and money laundering case that opened in 2014 and eventually ensnared current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Moro said on Twitter he had been targeted for retaliation by one of Brazil’s most notorious drug trafficking gangs, known as the First Capital Command. He thanked the police forces and said he would issue a statement later Wednesday.

From 2014 to 2018, Moro was the lead judge in the Carwash trials, which led to the arrest of prominent politicians including Lula, who spent over a year in jail. His conviction was later annulled. In 2019, Moro became former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister, but left the government in April 2020 and secured a Senate seat last year.

Local media including newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that the criminal organization targeted in Wednesday's raids was the First Capital Command. Neither the police nor the Justice Ministry confirmed that information.

Justice Minister Flávio Dino wrote on Twitter that a senator and a prosecutor were among the targets of the “homicide plan."

Federal police last year investigated a plan by the First Capital Command to kidnap federal public servants, aiming to exchange them for the release of Marco Willians Camacho, the gang’s imprisoned leader, according to a report from online media UOL.