Lobbyist Julio Fróes was a cocaine trafficker.
The truculent man who assaulted a Veja journalist and distributed briefcases of money inside the Ministry of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi (right), spent three years in jail; he was caught with half a kilo of cocaine at the Fortaleza airport in 1992.
247 – The accusation that a lobbyist operated from an office inside the Ministry of Agriculture, revealed in this week's edition of Veja magazine, is bad enough on its own, but when you add the fact that this lobbyist spent three years in prison for drug trafficking, the news takes on a fantastical air. Júlio César Fróes Fialho, who pulled out a tooth from the author of the report that exposed him, journalist Rodrigo Rangel, was arrested in 1992 at Fortaleza airport with half a kilo of cocaine in his suitcase, columnist Claudio Humberto reported this Tuesday. At the time, Fróes presented himself as the "political marketer César Fialho".
The flight on which the lobbyist arrived in Fortaleza had departed from Rio Branco (AC), and the drug seizure was even reported as a headline by the newspaper O Povo. Júlio Fróes presented himself, at the time, as a marketing strategist for Vicente Fialho, a candidate for federal deputy, and for Ricardo Prado (state deputy), in Ceará. The lobbyist became uncomfortable with the overcrowding of his cell in Fortaleza and managed to transfer to another prison, in Contagem (MG).
The Minister of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, denied knowing Júlio Fróes, and so far, the consequences of the accusation that the lobbyist operated from an office inside the Ministry have only reached the Ministry's Executive Secretary, Milton Ortolan, who has already left his post. To produce the report that brought down Ortolan, reporter Rodrigo Rangel interviewed Fróes at the Beirute restaurant in Brasília. It was there that the lobbyist assaulted the journalist.
According to a statement released by ANJ (National Association of Newspapers), "at a certain point (during the meeting), the interviewee began making threats, asking if the journalist had a wife and children. At that point, Rangel ended the interview, but as he stood up he was pulled by the arm, put in a chokehold, kneed in the stomach and face, and thrown against a table. The journalist, who had a tooth broken, underwent an examination at the Forensic Medical Institute." Fróes is, evidently, a little more (or less) than a simple lobbyist.