Brazil Congress members targeted by police crackdown

Brazil’s Federal Police and prosecutors are exercising 24 search and seizure warrants and 48 calls for clarification in nine states as part of Operation Ross, launched today (Dec. 11).

Targeted are Senator Aécio Neves, his sister Andrea Neves, and his cousin Pacheco de Medeiros. Also brought under scrutiny are Senators Antonio Anastasia and José Agripino Maia. Authorities are also investigating Paulinho da Força, Benito Gama, and Cristiane Brasil.

Altogether, 200 men have been engaged in the crackdown, which probes into illicit advantages benefiting Congress members from 2014 to 2017.

Operation Ross is a spin-off of Operation Patmos, initiated by the Federal Police in May 2017. The sums scrutinized, believed to have also been used for public support, may have added up to more than $27 million.

The crackdown was based on the plea bargain statements of executives at J&F, controlled by brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista.

The operation is a reference to the British explorer after whom the world’s biggest ice platform was named, in Antarctica—an allusion to false invoices, usually referred to in Brazil as cold invoices.