The alleged PCC plot against authorities was investigated last year, without Moro presiding, and could not be judged by Gabriela Hardt.

From Conjur –  Operation "follower," which uncovered an alleged plot to kidnap Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) and free leaders of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) criminal faction, revived the allegations from Operation "Guardian Angels," carried out in August of last year. The difference was the addition of Moro among the targets.

According to the Federal Police, members of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) were planning attacks against Moro and the São Paulo Public Prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya with the aim of rescuing group leaders incarcerated in federal prisons. The main target would be Marco Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola, the head of the faction, who is in the Federal Penitentiary of Brasília.

Judge Gabriela Hardt, acting as a substitute in the 9th Federal Court of Curitiba, decreed the provisional arrest of 11 individuals under investigation on the 22nd. The arrest and search warrants were executed in São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Rondônia.

The alleged plan has been mentioned on several other occasions. The most recent was Operation "Guardian Angels." In August 2022, the 15th Federal Court of Brasília ordered the preventive detention of four lawyers and seven PCC leaders, alleging that they were plotting to rescue Marcola and his allies. The plan involved the kidnapping of prison authorities. The arrest and search warrants were executed by the Federal Police in the Federal District, Mato Grosso do Sul, and São Paulo.

The main difference is that last year's investigation was conducted by the Federal Court of Brasília, while the 2023 investigation is being conducted by the Federal Court of Paraná, with regard to the alleged plan to kidnap Moro, and by the state court of São Paulo.

Experts consulted by the online magazine Consultor Jurídico indicate that the Federal Court of Paraná is not competent to conduct the investigation into the alleged plan to kidnap Sergio Moro. Since the crimes under investigation would not have been committed because he is a member of parliament, nor to the detriment of assets, services, or interests of the Union, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the state court.

And it's not even the responsibility of the Paraná state justice system, but of the São Paulo state justice system. After all, it was São Paulo that initiated the investigation. And the first preparatory acts to put the eventual project into practice were carried out by members of the PCC in cities in São Paulo.

Lula already knew.

When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) told the website Brasil 247 that he had once wanted to destroy Sergio Moro and, later, that the baseless charade endorsed by Gabriela Hardt was a setup by his enemy, he had more information than he let on.

The Presidential Palace had already been warned that Curitiba had gathered a jumble of baseless allegations, described as a plan to kidnap the current senator.

The issue, initially, revolves around a dispute of narratives. Moro's narrative is that, because he fought crime, major drug traffickers—known as the "PCC"—decided to take revenge on him. The opposing side, it seems, sees the movement as a political move to weaken the government.

The decision attributed to Judge Hardt doesn't help much. She bases her conclusions on flimsy evidence that proves nothing. She decrees that the alleged witness was a "PCC faction member" without indicating the source of her certainty. She concludes that certain words mean other things without any explanation and constructs a plot that doesn't hold water. And this is no small detail: the judge took on the case on a Friday and the following Tuesday morning, she registered her 69-page decision in the system. 

The crux of the argument is a 2019 decree, signed by Sergio Moro when he was Minister of Justice, which restricted conjugal visits for drug traffickers imprisoned under a special disciplinary regime, while maintaining the privilege for informants. This would be the reason for the alleged revenge plot against the current senator.

This "explanation" replaced the one that the revenge was due to the transfer of one of the drug traffickers (alleged leader of the alleged PCC) to another prison. When it became clear that it wasn't Moro who transferred the convict, the theory crumbled. But the "motivation" for the prison visits also vanished, since Moro merely reproduced what had been established in an ordinance signed during Michel Temer's government by then-Minister Torquato Jardim—who didn't become a target for it.

The goal of those who criticize the "Lava Jato" operation is to associate the PT (Workers' Party) with crime. That's why Moro questioned the fact that the party took over the ADPF (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental - Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept) against restrictions on prison visits—a case that was recently dismissed at the government's request.