The arrest of suspects in the Moro case was based on a whistleblower and coded messages.

Sergio Rodas, Conjur - Judge Gabriela Hardt, acting as a substitute in the 9th Federal Court of Curitiba, based her decision on the testimony of an informant and coded cell phone messages to order the provisional arrest of 11 individuals investigated for an alleged plan to kidnap Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR). The arrest and search warrants were executed by the Federal Police this Wednesday (March 22).

 In total, 24 search and seizure warrants, seven preventive arrest warrants, and four temporary arrest warrants were issued in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Rondônia. The suspects are identified as members of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) criminal faction.

 The investigation originated from the testimony of a protected witness. She stated that she had previously been a member of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) and sought help from the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office after being threatened with death by the faction. According to the informant, Janeferson Aparecido Mariano Gomes was the one tasked with killing her.

 When questioned about Gomes' other plans, the witness said that he had recently learned that Gomes was planning attacks against authorities. He mentioned that Sergio Moro was among the targets. The informant stated that his source told him that Gomes would be in charge of gathering information and kidnapping the senator, but he could not specify what criminal acts would be carried out afterward.

 Furthermore, the witness provided the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office with four phone numbers, which allegedly belonged to contacts close to Gomes. With the breach of confidentiality, the Federal Police obtained images from emails that would indicate the existence of a plan to kidnap Moro.

 In a screenshot from Janeferson Gomes's cell phone, he asks Aline Paixão, who is believed to be his partner, to save certain codes. "Tokio" is the code for Moro. "Flamengo" is for kidnapping, and "Fluminense" is for action.

 In other messages, alleged members of the PCC discussed costs and measures to execute a plan against "Tokio." The conversations also showed that the group rented properties in Curitiba, where Moro owns a house.

 According to Gabriela Hardt, the alleged plan is due to Sergio Moro's actions as a judge and as Minister of Justice. As a judge, he "gained notoriety for fighting organized crime at the head of 'Lava Jato'," the judge stated.

 While serving as Minister of Justice, he issued Ordinance 157/2019 and authored the preliminary draft that culminated in the "anti-crime" law (Law 13.964/2019), restricting visits in federal prisons to the visiting room and videoconferencing. According to Hardt, the regulations created "great difficulty for leaders of criminal groups to run their illicit businesses from inside prison."

 However, the measures had already been in effect for two years when Ordinance 718/2017 was issued by the then Minister of Justice, Torquato Jardim. The regulation prohibited conjugal visits in federal penitentiaries for leaders of criminal organizations, inmates subject to the differentiated disciplinary regime, and prisoners involved in episodes of escape, violence, or indiscipline. On the other hand, the regulation allowed cooperating witnesses to have one conjugal contact per month with people outside the prison.

 Hardt also said that the recent decision by the Supreme Federal Court to deny a lawsuit against the restriction on visits to federal prisoners "will certainly inflame the passions of criminal factions against the State."

 "Therefore, it is possible to speculate that an attack against the integrity of Senator Sergio Moro is being prepared by the First Command of the Capital (PCC) in order to demonstrate power and instill fear in the State, as a way to supposedly reduce the alleged oppression suffered by the faction within the federal prison system," opined the judge.

 Prosecutor's questions

 The Federal Police maintain that the PCC had a plan to rescue the faction's leader, Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola. He is currently incarcerated in the Federal Penitentiary of Brasília.

 In 2019, Marcola was transferred from a prison in São Paulo to the Federal Penitentiary in Brasília. At the time, Justice Minister Sergio Moro sought to take credit for the move. Some say that the PCC turned against Moro because of the incident.

 The prosecutor from the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office, Lincoln Gakiya, who was also allegedly a target of the PCC, refutes this argument. In an interview published a year ago by the online magazine Consultor Jurídico, he stated that Marcola's transfer was requested by the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office and authorized by the courts, without any involvement from Moro.

 "It's a lie (the action plan of the then Minister of Justice and Security of the Bolsonaro government for the transfer of PCC leaders). I drafted, planned, and made the request during the government of (Márcio) França, in 2018. And the order was granted by a state judge. Not the federal government. The federal judge who receives this prisoner cannot even analyze the merits of the request. He only analyzes whether the request is formally in order. There was no participation from the federal government, former Minister Moro, President Bolsonaro, or anyone else. It was done by me, at my own risk. The federal government only had to comply."

 Moro's replacement

 Gabriela Hardt replaced Sergio Moro in the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, where the "Lava Jato" cases were being processed, at the end of 2018, when he resigned from his position as judge to assume the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro. She remained as the presiding judge until April of the following year. Currently, she is again serving as a substitute judge in the 13th Court.

 It was this judge who sentenced President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to prison in February 2019, in the case of the Atibaia (SP) property. At the time, she copied excerpts from the sentence in the Guarujá (SP) triplex case, in which Moro had also convicted Lula. Both were later overturned by the Supreme Federal Court (STF).

Read Gabriela Hardt's decision in full: