A group suspected of operating air logistics to explore illegal mining in the Yanomami indigenous land, the largest in Brazil, moved more than BRL 200 million in two years, according to a Federal Police investigation that resulted in a new operation this Thursday (19) .
The group, says the PF, is made up of businessman Rodrigo Martins de Mello, a pre-candidate for federal deputy for the PL, the party of President Jair Bolsonaro. Mello started to coordinate a movement of prospectors in Roraima that tries to legitimize criminal activity in Yanomami territory.
According to the PF, aircraft on behalf of companies in the group are used to transport people, fuel and equipment to mining areas on Yanomami land, as a way of carrying out the illegal extraction of minerals.
Mello is the owner of enterprises that received funds from the federal government, mainly for air transport related to indigenous health, such as the Sheet revealed in September 2021.
Two Mello companies, Cataratas Poços Artesianos and Icaraà Turismo Táxi Aéreo, have received BRL 39.5 million from the Union since 2014, the largest share – BRL 23.5 million to Icaraà – in the Bolsonaro government.
The headquarters of Cataratas in Boa Vista has already been the target of a helicopter seizure action, carried out jointly by PF, Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).
Mello is suspected of leading a logistical operation that guarantees the illegal exploitation of ores on Yanomami land, mainly gold and cassiterite. In October, he had already been the target of the first phase of the Urihi Wapopë operation, which investigates illegal mining in the indigenous territory.
This new phase of the operation, launched this Thursday, targets four employees of Cataratas and an alleged shell company linked to Mello who moved amounts from illegal mining after the businessman had his personal and business bank accounts blocked in the PF investigation.
The PF fulfilled four search and seizure warrants, authorized by the Federal Court, at the employees’ addresses.
Among the evidence collected by the investigators of the work of Mello’s group, there are files on the servers of Cataratas that record routes of aircraft heading to mining sites located on Yanomami land.
In the first phase of the operation, the PF identified a large amount of fuel, equipment for mining machines and bales of food with handwritten names, in addition to coordinates of mining points.
The investigation also showed that one of the employees of Cataratas used bank accounts of another company, Tarp Táxi Aéreo, with payment of slips for the purpose of transferring funds abroad.
The PF attributes Mello to the partnership of Tarp, a company that received BRL 29.1 million from the federal government between 2016 and 2018.
The businessman’s employees, according to the investigators, also had duties such as paying helicopter pilots, making fractional withdrawals, managing mining points and transferring money out of the country through money changers, according to the police investigation.
The PF identified that 12 helicopter pilots and 13 aircraft mechanics worked for the group.
The businessman’s lawyer, Ana Paula de Souza Cruz, said that she had followed the testimony of one of the four employees, who had two cell phones and a diary seized. “Affidavits were made, and the items were returned to her with nothing found on them,” she said.
A second deposition is scheduled for the morning of this Friday (20), according to the lawyer.
The police requested that Mello, Cataratas and their son break bank and tax secrecy, according to sources accompanying the investigations. “The defense was not subpoenaed about this,” said the businessman’s lawyer. Ana Paula also said that she had not been summoned about notes from the PF investigation regarding the group’s financial transactions.
The looting of gold on Yanomami land has exploded since Bolsonaro’s arrival at the Presidency of the Republic. The president defends mining on indigenous lands and does not oppose illegal mining.
Indigenous associations estimate that 20,000 miners are on Yanomami land, with the permanence guaranteed by owners of ferries, dredgers, “tatuzões” and aircraft. These associations denounce a series of violations of indigenous rights.
In January, second-instance federal judge Maria do Carmo Cardoso, who is close to the Bolsonaro family, released resources and aircraft from the group suspected of operating air logistics for mining on Yanomami land. The magistrate works at TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region), is called “Tia Carminha” and acts as a kind of legal advisor to the family.
The assets had been seized by decision of the Federal Court in Roraima, based on investigations by the PF and the MPF (Federal Public Ministry).
The suspicions are that the group formed a criminal organization for illegal exploitation of gold and committed environmental crimes and money laundering.
Three ongoing lawsuits in the Federal Court resulted in the seizure of assets, including nine aircraft, determined by a lower court judge.
The Yanomami Indigenous Land is the largest demarcated territory in the country and, according to the ISA (Socio-Environmental Institute), is home to 26,780 indigenous people, including isolated peoples.
The indigenous land completes 30 years of demarcation on May 25th. Last year, two uncontacted indigenous people were shot to death in the territory by invaders.
In 2019, a report made by Unicef ​​(United Nations Children’s Fund) in partnership with Fiocruz and the Ministry of Health pointed out that 81.2% of children under five years old surveyed in the region had short stature for their age (chronic malnutrition). ), 48.5% were underweight for their age (acute malnutrition) and 67.8% were anemic.
