Former PJ inspector suspected of frustrating operation with DEA
APRIL 18, 2017
1:03 PM
Carlos Rodrigues Lima
Prosecutor charged 29 people in Operation Achilles for crimes of criminal association, corruption and drug trafficking
"La Maquina". It was at the end of 2007 that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), sent the nickname known to some criminal organizations in South America as an informant to PJ himself . This after a joint operation between the two police officers was frustrated by a "tip" that reached the traffickers, prompting them to cancel the shipment of the drug to Europe. Ten years later, the Public Prosecution Office considers that there is sufficient evidence to charge the informant "la maquina", Carlos Dias Santos, a former PJ inspector, and another suspect: Ricardo Macedo, chief inspector, who will also have collaborated with drug cartels.
The 2007 episode opens the indictment of prosecutors Vítor Magalhães, João Melo and Lígia Salbany of the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action against 29 defendants accused of crimes of criminal association, active and passive corruption, drug trafficking, among others.
In the indictment, the MP considers that the conduct of the defendants Carlos Dias dos Santos, the coordinator of the reformed criminal investigation, and Ricardo Macedo, the chief inspector still in office, "violated the loyalty demanded for their quality of PJ inspectors and infringed The rules and requirements of legality, objectivity, impartiality and independence ". Carlos Dias dos Santos and Ricardo Macedo are accused of aggravated drug trafficking, a criminal association with a view to trafficking and passive corruption to commit illicit acts. Another of the 29 defendants is the GNR military officer José Baltazar da Silva, who is responsible for aggravated drug trafficking and a criminal association aimed at drug trafficking.
Although there have been suspicions of links between the two Judiciary men for several years to the world of drug trafficking, only a few years ago a team from the National Anti-Corruption Unit of the Judicial Police investigated them thoroughly, crossing information from various processes and maintaining The suspects under tight, but discreet, vigilance. The impetus for the investigation will be based on new information given by the North Americans in 2013, clearly identifying Dias Santos and Ricardo Macedo as the "moles" of some drug traffickers, especially a Colombian group whose leader is known as "Papi."
One of the cases attributed to Ricardo Macedo is a trip made by this and another judicial inspector to Morocco in 2012, according to his own version, to contact an informant, a Raul Rosa, who had fled from Portugal, while serving a prison sentence and subject to electronic surveillance. It is that, at the same time of this trip, the PJ of Leiria was preparing a covert action to catch a shipment of drug and at the same time to arrest again Raul Rosa. Something that did not happen because, according to the prosecution, such a trip was only a pretext to inform the trafficker of the ongoing investigation.
As a result of the alleged collaboration with some trafficking networks, Dias Santos and Ricardo Macedo have received hundreds of thousands of euros for years. In fact, Dias Santos, being under house arrest under the Operation Achilles, did not restrain himself from buying a high-powered car. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the former inspector of the Judiciary simply had no declared income to do so. In fact, Carlos Dias Santos is still suspected of having resorted to the bank accounts of a godmother to conceal the origin of a few thousand euros that will have been handed to him by the traffickers.
Yesterday, contacted by DN, lawyer Carlos Melo Alves, who represents Dias Santos, told DN that it is most likely to request the opening of the instruction, since "according to my client", he said, "the facts described do not correspond to the truth". DN sought to listen to Rodrigo Santiago, Ricardo Macedo's lawyer, but this was not possible.
The UNCC investigation also detected several money inflows into Ricardo Macedo's bank accounts. At the same time, police found that the former chief inspector only suspected that he was under investigation, and that he began making frequent movements with his bank card, something that had not happened until then, indicating that he would have access to cash. After the DCIAP indictment, the case will be heard at the Central Criminal Investigation Court.
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