In RO, PF discovers militia created to serve farmers; organization moved more than R$ 400 million

Iury Lima – Cenarium Magazine

VILHENA (RO) – Members of a private militia, formed by Rondônia police officers and paid by farmers, were arrested this Thursday, 17. The group was specialized in fraudulent legal actions of land expropriation and had been in the Federal Police’s sights for at least a year.

The agents served 5 preventive arrest warrants and 32 search and seizure warrants in the capital Porto Velho and in the municipalities of Ariquemes (RO) and Vilhena (RO), in the countryside. The cities of Cassilândia, in Mato Grosso do Sul, and the Federal District were also targeted. There was also a removal from public office among the Justice’s determinations. A lawyer is among the suspects arrested in the operation that had the support of the Civil Police (PC) and the Rondônia Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPRO).

Old performance

The militia, as classified by the PF, had been under investigation since 2021, after another similar operation was conducted in 2020, pointing to the existence of the group.

At the time, the police were investigating a criminal organisation composed of public servants who, associated with squatters of rural properties, defrauded processes at the National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). The Federal Police analysed the material seized at that time and opened an enquiry to investigate the organisation of the private militia.

The police members of the scheme were paid by people from the same family, under the condition of keeping possession of a farm of 33,000 hectares, equivalent to twice the urban perimeter of Porto Velho. The property is located in the district of Nova Mutum Paraná, just over 100 kilometres from the capital.

Millionaire financing

Constantly the target of agrarian conflicts, the agents co-opted by the crime also received money to make patrols in the region and keep invaders away, using heavy weapons that were kept at the farm’s headquarters.

The financing of the militia moved R$445 million, which proved the payment made to the Rondônia public servants involved in the case, according to the Federal Police. If convicted, those investigated could spend more than 20 years in prison.