Trucks used in anti-democratic blockades —against the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva— of roads and avenues in the Midwest have already been involved in crimes such as drug trafficking, smuggling and environmental crime registered by the police.
The information is contained in a document sent by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) to the STF (Federal Supreme Court), based on the survey of license plates of vehicles that participated in a convoy organized by demonstrators in Cuiabá (MT) on November 5th.
This Wednesday (7), Minister Alexandre de Moraes imposed a fine of R$ 100,000 on the owners of the trucks listed in the document, which were identified by the authorities of Mato Grosso.
Moraes also made these vehicles unavailable — that is, he banned their circulation and blocked their documents. The decision came after he determined the adoption of measures to unblock highways and public spaces in the state.
The situation was highlighted by the attorney general of Justice of Mato Grosso, José Antônio Pereira, in a letter sent to the STF in which he asked for a fine for those involved.
He pointed out that “some of these vehicles are even involved in previous offenses, as informed by the PRF”. The owners of the vehicles listed as participating in the roadblocks are the same ones that appear in the incident reports registered by the police.
THE Sheet contacted the individuals listed as owners of the trucks and the drivers mentioned in the cases via WhatsApp, but received no response. The companies were contacted by email and also did not respond.
One of them, a Mercedes Benz Actros 265 model truck, had already been seized in October, the month before the protests in which he participated.
According to a PRF document, he was caught on the BR-101, near the municipality of Palhoça (Santa Catarina), transporting three tons of drugs (2.9 tons of marijuana and 103 kilos of skank).
The driver was arrested and taken, along with the vehicle, to the Federal Police in Florianópolis. The driver and another man who was part of the convoy reported that they would earn R$100,000 for the service.
According to the police report, the truck was registered as belonging to the company Sipal Indústria e Comércio. The same company had eight vehicles registered with the police as participants in anti-democratic acts. On November 17, Moraes had the company’s bank account blocked.
The owner and partners of Sipal were contacted by email, but did not respond. The report also called the company and contacted the company’s human resources department by phone and WhatsApp, which even said in the messages that it would forward the questions to the responsible area – but the questions were never answered.
The same situation occurred with members of the Bedin family. One of the three trucks registered in the name of Evandro Bedin used in the acts was also caught by the police operating for smuggling, in 2018. Bedin appears as the owner of the vehicle in the bulletin record.
The driver had already been arrested on other occasions for transporting boxes of cigarettes from Paraguay, without proper documentation for the entry of the product. Bedin was contacted via WhatsApp, where he displays a clenched fist in the colors of the Brazilian flag and the message “Strength, Captain” in his profile image, but he did not respond.
Another vehicle affected by Moraes’ decision had already been seized in a bulletin registered for an environmental crime, in the name of Vanteir Pereira da Silva.
According to the PRF record of Rondonópolis (MT), the truck was picked up on December 5, 2021, on BR-364, during a joint inspection with the Institute of Agricultural Defense of the State of Mato Grosso (Indea) and the Environmental Military Police .
At the time, the vehicle and the cargo were sent to the PRF yard where they would be available to the Municipal Environment Secretariat for appropriate measures, such as removal and custody measures at the expense of the owner.
The driver was charged with the crime of transporting, acquiring and selling wood, firewood and charcoal without a valid license. Silva was also contacted via WhatsApp, but did not respond.
In his decision on the trucks, Moraes stated that the “inauthentic and coordinated” displacement of vehicles to the surroundings of public buildings, in particular military installations, with the aim of breaking the constitutional order can configure the crime of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.
“This scenario, therefore, demands an absolutely proportional reaction from the State, in the sense of guaranteeing the preservation of fundamental rights and guarantees and removing the possible economic influence in the propagation of anti-democratic ideals and actions”, he added.
The coup acts began shortly after the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) over Bolsonaro in this year’s elections was confirmed.
Trucks blocked roads at more than 100 points across the country and camps were set up in front of army units in several cities.
Bolsonaro did not condemn the demonstrations in front of the barracks, but asked for the roadblocks to be lifted.
When the PRF managed to dismantle the demonstrations on the roads, many trucks went to Brasília and parked in the camp in front of the Army Headquarters, in the federal capital.
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