04/04/2024 – 21:46
The founder of the Brazilian Shooting and Hunting Confederation, Fernando Humberto Henrique Fernandes, was the target of search and seizure in a Federal Police (PF) operation launched this Thursday, 4. The PF is investigating a gang suspected of trafficking firearms between Brazil and the United States. In 2020, Fernando Humberto was a defense witness for former military police officer Ronnie Lessa, confessed killer of Rio councilor Marielle Franco (PSOL). An Army lieutenant, he has been on the run since 2015, when he was sentenced to one year and four months in prison for the crime of slander.
In total, six search and seizure warrants were carried out in the capital of Rio de Janeiro and in the cities of Curitiba and Maringá in Paraná. According to the PF, the group under investigation also carried out clandestine trade in military materials to criminal factions and militias in Rio de Janeiro.
Fernando Humberto's addresses were searched by the PF this Thursday morning. According to corporate sources interviewed by the Estadãoinvestigators suspect that Fernando Humberto was the intermediary of international trafficking.
Based in the center of Rio, the CTCB brings together state sniper clubs that accredit hunters, shooters and collectors (CAC's). The confederation is also responsible for registering clubs and organizing shooting competitions.
According to the PF, the investigation began based on information provided by the Federal Revenue Service that showed that the group imported war material irregularly and hired a company that works with cinematic effects to store the weapons. According to the police, the gang claimed that they were keeping blank weapons so as not to raise suspicions about criminal activity.
In Rio de Janeiro, 34 firearms were seized. In Paraná, police collected 94 high-capacity magazines, 12 firearm conversion kits, 262 pistol magazines, 22 rifle magazines and 32 tactical bandoliers.
To the Estadão, lawyer Ary Brandão de Oliveira, responsible for Fernando Humberto's defense, stated that he has permission from the United States government to trade weapons between the two countries. Ary also said that the founder of the confederation has dual American citizenship and was in the US during the PF operation.
“We will present authorizations for what is considered illegal. He has permission from the American government to trade firearms, in the same way that he represents companies in the sector in Brazil, with authorization from the Brazilian Army”, stated Ary Brandão.
A fugitive from justice, Fernando Humberto went to court to testify in favor of Ronnie Lessa and was not arrested
In March 2015, Fernando Humberto was sentenced by the Superior Military Court (STM) to one year and four months in prison for the crime of slander. Since then, he has been on the run from justice and has not presented himself to serve his sentence.
In August 2020, he appeared in person at the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice (TJ-RJ) as a defense witness for Ronnie Lessa. Even though the arrest warrant was issued by the STM, Fernando Humberto was not arrested by the TJ-RJ magistrates. O Estadão He sought out the Military Court, but received no response until the publication of this text.
According to the PF investigation into the death of Marielle Franco, recently released, Lessa was responsible for executing the parliamentarian and her driver, Anderson Gomes, on March 14, 2018, in the center of Rio.
Fernando Humberto told the TJ-RJ judges that the weapon used to kill Marielle and driver Anderson Gomes may not have been an MP5 submachine gun, contrary to what investigators concluded. He told the magistrates that he was not a friend of Ronnie's and that he would speak as an expert in weapons weapons.
“For me, it's not an MP5 because MP5 is group fire and it's the best machine gun in the world. For me, this is an Uzi (machine gun) or a Glock (pistol). It's a mess because the shot is all spread out. There are 10 shots he showed me there, ten spread out… If it were the MP5, everything would be concentrated”, stated the founder of the confederation.
To the Estadão, Ary Brandão stated that Lessa was a member of the confederation, but that the relationship between the two was that of founder and associate. “Ronnie Lessa, through his lawyers, asked Fernando Humberto to explain technical issues, as a way of showing that it would not be possible for him to have been the executor”, said the lawyer.
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