Operation Giratina: PM sergeant and former Detran-BA officials arrested for vehicle registration fraud
Operation Giratina arrested a PM sergeant and two former Detran-BA officials suspected of fraudulently altering vehicle registrations and transfers to obtain financing in Ceará.
Scheme used forged Renavam documents to obtain credit using vehicles from real companies
The Bahia Civil Police launched Operation Giratina on the morning of Tuesday (1st), arresting three people suspected of participating in a vehicle registration and transfer fraud scheme in the state. According to an investigation by g1.globo.com, the inquiry revealed that the group created an appearance of legality for cars belonging to real companies before using them as collateral for financing.
The arrested individuals have been identified as former Detran-BA officials Orlando Azevedo dos Santos Júnior, known as Binho do Detran, and Kauê Duarte Ambrozi da Silva, as well as Military Police sergeant Jean Conceição dos Reis. Two of them were detained in Madre de Deus and one in Simões Filho.
During the execution of one of the warrants, police found an illegal firearm at the residence of Anselmo Duarte Ambrozi da Silva, a former councillor of Madre de Deus and father of Kauê Duarte, known as Anselmo filho de Begu. He was brought to the police station, questioned and subsequently released.
g1.globo.com attempted to contact the suspects' legal representatives but received no response by the time of publication.
How the scheme worked
According to the Civil Police, vehicles originally registered in states in the South, Southeast and Centre-West regions were used as the basis for creating fraudulent registrations in Bahia. Days after the fictitious regularisation, the cars were used to obtain financing from companies in Ceará.
To carry out the fraud, the suspects presented falsified documents, carried out or validated inspections and inserted information into the Renavam, the national vehicle registration system. Documents necessary to formalise the transfers were also issued as part of the scheme.
The participation of Detran-BA officials in steps such as inspection, document verification and registration issuance is being investigated as the central mechanism for giving fraudulent vehicles an appearance of regularity.
Authorities suspect that banks and financial companies released credit using the cars as collateral without knowing that the documents had been tampered with. In practice, the vehicles belonged to companies that were unaware of the operations carried out in their names.
Investigation initiated by Detran-BA itself
The inquiry originated from suspicions identified by Detran-BA itself during internal procedures at the Simões Filho unit. The agency's internal affairs department initiated investigations and communicated the findings to the Civil Police, which then structured the operation.
The three former officials had already been dismissed at the beginning of the internal investigations, even before the arrests on Tuesday.
During the operation, a pistol, a revolver, mobile phones and documents were seized and will be analysed by investigators.
Warrants executed in Bahia and Ceará
Operation Giratina executed ten search and seizure warrants in Bahian cities — Simões Filho, Madre de Deus, Camaçari and Lauro de Freitas — and four others in Ceará, at addresses linked to a company and individuals under investigation in that state.
The operation brought together teams from the Economic Crimes and Crimes Against Public Administration Department (Dececap), the Department for Suppression and Combating Corruption, Organised Crime and Money Laundering (Draco-LD), with support from the Police Intelligence Department (DIP), the Ceará Civil Police and the Internal Affairs Department of the Bahia Military Police.
The investigated individuals are suspected of inserting false information into systems, ideological forgery, corruption and criminal association. The investigation continues to determine the involvement of other individuals and the commission of crimes in different states.
Source: Google News BR — São Paulo