Killer Ratings (2019) s01e03 Episode Script
Conspiracy
A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES Everyone envied Canal Livre.
VOICE OF VICTOR HUGO PRODUCER - CANAL LIVRE They always said, "How can they always arrive first?" We were driving past and spotted this Gol with the plate JXL 5850 driven by this guy with black shorts.
He was approached by an unidentified car, and they shot him at least four times, according to witnesses.
Of course, the crew would drive around the city, and sometimes we would get lucky.
WALLACE'S ACCUSER MOA'S WIFE The hardest part was when they took him away.
From me, from his mother, his sisters and his father.
It was tough.
It was love.
We loved each other.
It was a lot of love.
A lot of respect.
Mary Tereza Ramos, the wife of the ex-military policeman Moacir Jorge da Costa, a.
k.
a "Moa," got in touch with the Human Rights Committee this Monday morning.
She alleges that her husband was mistreated by the civil police.
She denied that her husband had any connection with Representative Wallace Souza.
He told me he was beaten and that he suffered psychological pressure.
They interrogated him in the middle of the night.
He signed papers without knowing what they were.
When the story hit the news, many people, mainly those living in poor neighborhoods, where Wallace was popular, thought that he was being persecuted.
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIS Many believed Moa had been tortured.
It was a watershed, because it cast doubt on the investigation.
ATTORNEY - HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE If it was true, it would be very serious, and the investigation would, obviously, lose all credibility.
Wallace would certainly be innocent.
This whole thing should never have happened.
The whole case is built on malpractice, which is proof that the whole case is false.
CHIEF DETECTIVE DIVANILSON CAVALCANTI TASK FORCE LEADER When you investigate organized crime and its activities, it's typical, it's normal to accuse the police of torture to disrupt their work.
So we had to find a way to prove that Representative Wallace Souza and Moa were connected.
The Task Force investigators requested permission from the Brazilian Justice System to check Moa's telephone records.
That took a while.
IPAT PRISON MARCH 5, 2009 Since I was on the Human Rights Committee, we visited the prison to investigate whether Moa had been tortured or not.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE We found Moa in a cell He was scared.
He was a frightened man.
He certainly felt threatened.
What they've done to me, you wouldn't have even done to a dog.
I had to defecate I had to defecate on a piece of newspaper.
Like an animal, you know? They didn't hit me, but they put five plastic bags over my head.
They gave me no water, so that I would say what they wanted.
And why didn't you complain about the mistreatment at the time? They told me that if I said anything that they would say I tried to escape and shoot me.
Because that's what they do.
He was asked if he knew Representative Wallace and he started to contradict himself.
I have some photos of yours of Wallace's swimming pool.
I don't know where you got those.
But you did use his swimming pool? I used to go to his house.
- With the son of the Representative? - Yes, but never with him.
- So you were friends with his son? - Yes, his son.
- So this photo is fake? - I don't know.
Were you never in Representative Wallace's pool? Not with him.
- He was there with his son.
- He's saying the photo is fake.
I was never in the pool with the Representative.
The problem is that Moa wasn't trustworthy.
He was totally ruffled about the picture.
In your statements, did anyone tell you to make false allegations against the representative or his son? You need to tell this to the Committee, since it's very important.
Thomaz, it was all Thomaz.
SECRETARY OF INTELLIGENCE He came in saying, "I just want this, this and this" Anything that would harm the Representative.
AMAZON STATE COURT HOUSE I'm Carlos Henrique.
I'm a lawyer.
I worked for five years on the Wallace case.
I have no doubt that Moa was tortured.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY - WALLACE CASE In the police station, he resorted to the right to remain silent.
Then Thomaz Vasconcelos took the case.
He was Secretary of Intelligence at the time.
The target of this operation has always been Representative Wallace.
Every time Moa gave a statement, Thomaz tried to collect info that would incriminate the Representative.
His confession was already written beforehand.
Moa said it had already been prepared.
And he was forced to sign it.
At that point, the persecution of Wallace Souza begins.
STATE ASSEMBLY Is this Parliament for or against me? This lady's statement, saying that her husband had been tortured for them to accuse me of being a gangster Me? For 23 years, I've been dedicating my life to fighting crime.
For 23 years, I've been dedicating my life to helping people.
I can't stand this cowardice anymore.
They are trying to strip me of the role I was elected for.
When I became a Representative, people thought I would change.
That I would forget about the people who helped me.
On the contrary I began to work harder for the humble people.
Wallace Souza conquered the hearts of the people from the city and the countryside with robust proposals to benefit the people of the Amazon State.
I vote for Wallace Souza because he helps families and fights against the violence against women.
He is a person of insurmountable kindness.
But I believe it was at this moment, where he was so powerful in the people's minds, he was considered some sort of sheriff, some kind of fighter against criminality.
The police have the obligation to investigate and give an answer to society.
Unfortunately, it was another weekend marked by blood and violence.
Watch this now In every crime news report, they would question the authorities; the Secretary of Security, the Military Police, the Civil Police They would question why there was no policing in the area.
I have spoken countless times to Governor Eduardo Braga and Secretary Lupércio.
They said, "No, the state cannot help.
" The state is negligent, and is therefore responsible for this situation.
Wallace was interested in becoming Secretary of Security and in controlling the security of the state.
This is a position with a very high political profile in the city of Manaus.
I think there was strong resistance to this possibility that he might become Secretary of Security and become even more powerful than he already was.
What is going on? These people sit in their offices and don't know what it is like in the outside world.
That's the way it is.
They are the ones who criticize us.
They are the ones who want to silence and sue us.
They are not going to silence us.
They won't.
Nobody is going to sue me, because I am a state representative.
But a crook like this needs to be beaten up.
When I think of Wallace, I think of a man who did everything he could to end the corruption we have in our state.
He thought he could change the system.
I don't fight the system.
I'm not crazy.
To understand this stage in Wallace's political persecution, we must talk about the town of Coari.
Wallace always said one of the reasons he was being investigated so viciously was because he was being persecuted by political groups, mainly those who opposed him.
In one of these groups was the Mayor's office.
I could never keep silent about injustices.
I could never shut up.
Where's Coari's CPI? Show them how big the investigation was.
This is the investigation on the city of Coari.
Coari is one of the most prosperous districts in Amazon State because it has the most tax revenue.
It's the largest oil producer.
This is why they want to destroy me.
Because no one else had the courage to investigate.
The Coari to Manaus Pipeline.
An impressive challenge involving complex engineering and logistics to take natural gas from the biggest oil fields in the north of the country to the capital of the Amazon.
Adail Pinheiro was a politician who, in a skillful way, got himself elected mayor of Coari at a moment in which the tax income from the oil exploration was expanding.
In 2000, I ran for mayor, and, thank God, I was elected.
That's when we started changing Coari.
The town was known, mostly, as a developing city.
Despite the huge income from the oil revenues, the population didn't reap any of the benefits of that money.
The mayor there kept almost all of the money.
I spent three years collecting documents, getting witnesses so that we could start an investigation.
Adail Pinheiro, thanks to the tax revenue from the oil exploration, used this money in his populist practices, and he gained immense visibility.
He strutted in the corridors of power.
STATE PROSECUTOR There was an operation in Coari, and they found 12 million reais hidden in a suburban house.
There are strong indications that this money comes from embezzlement.
It was hidden in suitcases.
The Federal Police were investigating the embezzlement and ended up finding in the recordings, in the telephone wiretaps something truly atrocious.
The trail led them to crimes of pedophilia.
FEDERAL POLICE WIRETAPS ASSISTANT: Such a baby.
I just checked her out.
POLITICIAN: Bring her to me at once.
ASSISTANT: Boss, such a baby, what a smile.
Clear white teeth with bright red gums.
- ASSISTANT: Long hair.
- POLITICIAN: Bring her.
ASSISTANT: Okay, on my way.
It was a horrible case.
The girls were picked out at school gates.
Assistants went out in cars with tinted windows and took photos of the girls so that the abuser could choose who was to be taken and abused.
It was a pedophile ring.
Powerful people.
Lots of them.
We were scared of what we were seeing.
No one dared to speak.
COMMUNITY ACTIVIS We managed to help four children at the time.
One of the first victims came to us, crying.
She was so shaken she could hardly talk.
We had to give her some time.
She had been taken to a boat.
She entered, and a woman locked her in.
The man was alone in the cabin.
He was high on drugs, drunk, snorting cocaine There was no one to hear her cries for help.
She was raped on the boat.
It wasn't just her.
She mentioned other children's names.
Some were her classmates.
When I spoke to the prosecutor, he said, "You have no idea how big this ring is.
" Who, among us, as fathers, would not feel anguished, revolted, indignant, in knowing that a daughter raised with love and care is, at the age of 12, seduced, kidnapped and raped? By itself, this account should be enough for all of us, parents, for all of us, good people, to be motivated and driven to act against this gang, against the child abuser, the Mayor Adail Pinheiro.
I'm gonna keep doing my part.
I'm sure that Coari is going to get rid of this cancer called Adail Pinheiro.
He was a god in town, he would pick up little girls, 12, 13, 14 years old.
He'd buy them from their parents.
He would pay a certain amount to rape these girls.
When the mother of a victim told me what happened, I decided to push to open a CPI.
CPI is a Committee of Parliamentary Inquiry.
At the time, Wallace and I decided to fight for the same cause.
We both wanted a CPI.
ASSEMBLY NEWS The Assembly approves the CPI against the mayor of Coari, Adail Pinheiro.
Manaus, June 12, this is Ale Notícias.
As soon as the President of the Assembly announced the CPI, people from Coari started cheering.
In reality, it's not a political group, it's a criminal gang who took power in order to ransack our town's resources.
The leader of the CPI, Wallace Souza, was moved by this historical moment.
There have been many days of tension, worry and expectation.
Above all, anxiety.
All of this aiming at the approval of the CPI.
Not for political advantage, but for the benefit of society.
When he tried to pursue the CPI to prove what had been happening in Coari, he thought that it would propel his political career, but he was actually falling into a snake pit.
I started to receive death threats.
And so did my family, because this guy had a lot of money and power.
I personally reported the names of the policemen who threatened to kill my son and I at the time of the Coari CPI.
Nothing was done.
The threats were constant against children, families It was horrible.
Some of the victims were locked in cars until they were sure they would never speak against Adail Pinheiro.
At one point, we had a plane all ready to go to Coari.
Wallace was going on the trip as well.
I prepared for the trip, as I was a member of the CPI, and I was ready to fulfill my obligation.
So I called the person in charge, and I asked, "When will it depart?" And he said, "Later," when I thought it would leave early.
And afterwards, I realized that the flight wasn't departing at eight or nine.
It was rescheduled to 11:00 a.
m.
I got to a point between 11 and 12 when I called the person in charge and I was told the trip had been called off.
"It's no longer going to happen.
" But it wasn't just the trip that was canceled.
After that happened, the CPI itself came to a halt.
It was terrible news.
The victims were in despair.
They asked, "What's gonna become of us?" Adail Pinheiro was a very cunning person in terms of forging political alliances.
So he strengthened his political position.
I ask the people of Coari for a round of applause The most important ally that Adail had was Governor Eduardo Braga.
Mayor Adail Pinheiro There were already allegations of sexual abuse organized through the city hall.
I don't know if it was Governor Eduardo Braga himself who called the representatives who supported him to put an end to the CPI or if Adail, with the help of his supporters, convinced the other representatives.
I don't have proof and I don't want to make unfounded allegations, but there was political pressure to stop the CPI.
That was very clear.
The CPI on child abuse in Coari, it was closed in 2007, after much controversy.
Then, in 2008, the Wallace case began.
To Wallace's allies, this was a form of revenge.
Governor Eduardo Braga was the arch-enemy of Wallace and his family.
Nobody had heard of Thomaz Vasconcelos before Eduardo Braga.
Suddenly he is appointed Secretary of Intelligence to be his right-hand man.
It was a political appointment, and he took that job to serve the Governor of the State.
An order from the governor will never be disobeyed by the secretary.
Moa said he'd been tortured.
He said, "I was tortured by Thomaz Vasconcelos.
" Since Dr.
Thomaz was a state authority, we called him to be heard in the Assembly.
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE MARCH 17, 2009 Secretary Thomaz was heard, and I remember that at the time, journalists were not allowed in.
So we were waiting outside.
We could see that he had a line of argument to prove that Moa had never been tortured.
The first time I met Moa was witnessed by two prosecutors.
So when, exactly, did I force, coerce, torture or induce him to say anything? I hadn't even met him I'm a policeman, and I am tough with criminals.
I am really tough, but I would never do what he describes.
So did you actually go there in the middle of the night? Never.
At no time, not for a single moment, was Moa tortured.
SECRETARY OF INTELLIGENCE The only defense they had was to discredit our image.
Moacir starts calling me torturer.
I see it like the price we pay.
It is part of the job.
But in the face of so much evidence against Moa this story went up in smoke.
I honestly didn't give it much importance.
No importance.
Based on the explanations and documents given by the Secretary, they were convinced, at the time, that Moa hadn't been tortured, and that's how the press reported it.
STATE REPRESENTATIVES CONCLUDE 'MOA' LIED ABOUT TORTURE Covering the Wallace case was a kind of a roller coaster.
Sometimes new info would show up that was very shocking.
I remember that at the time, someone showed up with new information that changed the whole story.
It was Moa's wife, Mary.
I was invited by Secretary Thomaz to listen to the statement of Moa's wife.
Did your husband work for Wallace Souza? He told me that he did.
What was his job? He told me he worked as a security guard.
When your husband and son were arrested, did you get in touch with a lawyer? No, I went to the Representative's house to speak to him.
Did he speak to you? He didn't want to, but I insisted and told him I wanted a lawyer because my husband needed one.
He said my husband was saying many things that compromised him.
And I said, "If you pay for his lawyer, my husband will take the accusations back.
" She said that she received money from Wallace through Raphael to influence Moa's statements in order to help Wallace.
Whose initiative was this? It was mine.
Secretary Thomaz was there and said, "Can you see it's all lies? He wasn't tortured.
His wife came here to retract.
" If he was tortured, only he knows.
But I didn't see any torture.
First she says he was tortured, then she says he was coerced into saying he was tortured.
I'm not even going to comment.
At the time, for us journalists, we could see she was desperate.
She was desperate to talk, to tell us more.
It looked as if there was something behind it.
It's possible that she was threatened to say there was no torture.
"If you don't take it all back, it's the end of your husband.
" That could have happened.
That happens in Brazil, but I'm not certain.
Maybe only she can tell the truth.
I don't want to talk about that.
Sorry, but that I don't want to go back there.
To this story.
What I want is to carry on with our lives not being angry with anybody.
With no need for revenge.
It's like he used to say, "I want to get out of here with my head held high and looking after my family.
" That's all I want.
The situation of Representative Wallace Souza is getting even more complicated.
In her statement, Mary Teresa said that she received 5,000 reais from Raphael Souza.
According to her, on top of the money, she'd get two flights a month to visit Moa in the Catanduva prison.
That had many repercussions in the media.
This incident created an even more negative image of Wallace.
CHIEF DETECTIVE DIVANILSON CAVALCANTI TASK FORCE LEADER The Task Force kept talking to witnesses, but many were not willing to give an official statement.
They were afraid of the criminal group headed by Wallace Souza.
We heard about a security guard who had had an argument with Wallace Souza.
Edras was a former military police officer.
He would be with the Representative and his team on a daily basis.
We found him and asked him to come to the police station.
One of the crimes described by Edras was about an alleged drug dealer called Henrique.
An alleged drug dealer.
He was attacked on Torquato Tapajós Street.
He was shot four times and died on the spot.
Check it out.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 It's 4:20 a.
m.
Here at Torquato Tapajós St.
, in front of the Phillips factory, we were driving past and we spotted this Gol right here, JXL 5850, driven by this guy with black shorts.
When the film crew arrived, he was still in agony and was taking his last breath.
He's alive Look.
We stayed here for one hour waiting for help.
The ambulance didn't come and he died.
I was at home when they broadcast the video.
HENRIQUE'S CHILDHOOD FRIEND His mother was at his house.
She watched everything.
His father fell into depression when he saw it.
He was very handsome.
Fair-skinned with dark brown eyes.
I loved him so much.
When Edras talked about the murder at the gas station, he said that a member of Canal Livre had told him what really happened there.
He did not know why they killed Henrique.
Maybe he was a rival drug dealer.
Whenever there was an execution, the crew from Canal Livre had already been warned.
Somebody working on the show, whose name I'm not saying, told me that the person who killed the drug dealer Henrique was Moa.
And that Raphael was the one driving the vehicle.
Moa had revealed in his statement that Raphael Souza, Wallace's son, was a key person in the criminal organization.
A very dangerous young man I remember the day when Moa's phone records finally arrived.
We looked at the log and I thought, "We've got him.
" Hi, Excellency.
How are you? Let me show you This phone belongs to Moa.
This is hard evidence that he made several calls to all the members of Wallace's staff.
In this organization.
Including the Representative himself, who initially denied knowing him and later admitted he saw him only once.
However, he called Wallace 20 times.
And the rest to his advisers, colonels, captains, privates they were all in constant contact with Moa.
The phone records were clear.
Now we had enough evidence.
We decided our next step.
The Task Force could not get a warrant to search Wallace's house because he had parliamentary immunity.
But they got a warrant to search his son's house, who, as it turns out, lived with the Representative.
I arrived around 4:30 p.
m.
I remember the street was quiet.
Very quiet.
When I got ready to ring the bell at the house, I was told that a white truck was arriving.
We saw it was Raphael.
Can you call my dad, please? Call him, please.
He recognized me and asked to talk to me.
Can I speak to you? Stay with the car while we search so you can't say we took anything.
I said, "We're complying with a court order.
Let the officers search your car.
" - It's not my car.
It's my dad's.
- No problem.
And as he watched the search, we found two .
380 magazines.
I asked him who owned those pistol magazines and he said they belonged to his dad.
We entered the house and we managed to begin the search.
And soon after that, Representative Wallace Souza arrived.
He said that all this was wrong.
That he was going to be Secretary of Security of the Amazon State.
I am going to show those policemen that I will be Secretary of Security.
You'll see.
And that we would pay for that.
At that moment, I noticed other politicians started to show up.
If you'd be so kind Please, please I want to get on with my job.
Damn it! This is not the house of criminals or drug dealers.
Shut up! State representatives, federal deputies, a city councilor, several attorneys I remember that one of the brothers was very agitated.
For God's sake, we've got the Vice-Mayor here, several representatives Many times I would stop and say, "I am only here to proceed with my duty.
I will do my job.
I will perform my duty.
" A war.
I had never experienced anything like that.
WALLACE'S SISTER I was panicking.
It was upsetting.
Because this was so immoral.
That couldn't be happening.
Seeing everybody armed, with heavy weapons.
It was a very difficult thing.
Then we searched Wallace Souza's room.
We came across a small briefcase locked with a combination lock.
I think it's zero-zero-one, but I'm not sure.
- Zero-zero-one? - Yes.
Zero-zero-one-five-five-five or something like that.
We asked the Representative to open it.
He opened it with the combination.
Inside we found, folded up, a small list of weapons.
- Is this your handwriting? - No.
At that moment, we noticed a safe.
We asked the Representative to open it.
We found a large amount of money.
How much is in there? There must be I don't know.
- Approximately? - Between 150 to 200 thousand reais.
No one touched it at any moment, right? Correct.
We started to count the money.
It took us some time to count it.
It was around 243,000 reais, and $15,000.
At that moment, he seemed physically crushed by everything that was happening.
And he started to crumble.
Maybe wondering how to explain having so much money in his house.
I remember that we were the first crew to get there.
The search took a long time.
They have not come out yet.
I was with a very eager photographer, and he was constantly trying to get pictures and pushing other journalists.
We all wanted that key image to send to the newsroom.
We went to Raphael Souza's room.
We noticed a locked cabinet.
Wallace Souza called Raphael.
He asked him what was in there.
He said, "Dad, there's nothing.
Nothing.
" "So open it.
" And Raphael said, "Dad, I don't know where the key is.
It's been a while since I opened it.
" I remember he was very nervous at the time.
When we opened it, I remember that we found a plastic bag with around nine spent bullets.
And also a folded piece of paper.
I asked, "What is this?" He then said he didn't know.
I immediately noticed it was a list.
A list of drug dealers that had been killed by the criminal group.
Raphael could not explain what the list was.
In addition to that, we found 9mm ammunition and other types of ammunition.
Right then and there, he went from witness in the search to someone to be detained.
Raphael Souza was taken into custody.
The Representative's security guards made a sort of cordon.
He claimed he wasn't feeling well.
He faked an illness.
Raphael got ill.
Raphael got really sick.
I'm not a criminal.
The press outside the house, many of them said, "Now it's your turn.
It's your turn to be on TV.
" The operation was a huge success.
The evidence we gathered confirmed all of the statements we had collected.
Once the raid was over, I remember I went home and slept soundly.
The Task Force was getting close to Representative Wallace Souza.
In 2014, Adail Pinheiro was sentenced to 11 years in prison for heading a pedophilia network.
Allegations of Raphael Souza's involvement in the murder at the gas station were never proven.
Raphael Souza was never charged for the murder of Henrique Ribeiro.
VOICE OF VICTOR HUGO PRODUCER - CANAL LIVRE They always said, "How can they always arrive first?" We were driving past and spotted this Gol with the plate JXL 5850 driven by this guy with black shorts.
He was approached by an unidentified car, and they shot him at least four times, according to witnesses.
Of course, the crew would drive around the city, and sometimes we would get lucky.
WALLACE'S ACCUSER MOA'S WIFE The hardest part was when they took him away.
From me, from his mother, his sisters and his father.
It was tough.
It was love.
We loved each other.
It was a lot of love.
A lot of respect.
Mary Tereza Ramos, the wife of the ex-military policeman Moacir Jorge da Costa, a.
k.
a "Moa," got in touch with the Human Rights Committee this Monday morning.
She alleges that her husband was mistreated by the civil police.
She denied that her husband had any connection with Representative Wallace Souza.
He told me he was beaten and that he suffered psychological pressure.
They interrogated him in the middle of the night.
He signed papers without knowing what they were.
When the story hit the news, many people, mainly those living in poor neighborhoods, where Wallace was popular, thought that he was being persecuted.
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIS Many believed Moa had been tortured.
It was a watershed, because it cast doubt on the investigation.
ATTORNEY - HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE If it was true, it would be very serious, and the investigation would, obviously, lose all credibility.
Wallace would certainly be innocent.
This whole thing should never have happened.
The whole case is built on malpractice, which is proof that the whole case is false.
CHIEF DETECTIVE DIVANILSON CAVALCANTI TASK FORCE LEADER When you investigate organized crime and its activities, it's typical, it's normal to accuse the police of torture to disrupt their work.
So we had to find a way to prove that Representative Wallace Souza and Moa were connected.
The Task Force investigators requested permission from the Brazilian Justice System to check Moa's telephone records.
That took a while.
IPAT PRISON MARCH 5, 2009 Since I was on the Human Rights Committee, we visited the prison to investigate whether Moa had been tortured or not.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE We found Moa in a cell He was scared.
He was a frightened man.
He certainly felt threatened.
What they've done to me, you wouldn't have even done to a dog.
I had to defecate I had to defecate on a piece of newspaper.
Like an animal, you know? They didn't hit me, but they put five plastic bags over my head.
They gave me no water, so that I would say what they wanted.
And why didn't you complain about the mistreatment at the time? They told me that if I said anything that they would say I tried to escape and shoot me.
Because that's what they do.
He was asked if he knew Representative Wallace and he started to contradict himself.
I have some photos of yours of Wallace's swimming pool.
I don't know where you got those.
But you did use his swimming pool? I used to go to his house.
- With the son of the Representative? - Yes, but never with him.
- So you were friends with his son? - Yes, his son.
- So this photo is fake? - I don't know.
Were you never in Representative Wallace's pool? Not with him.
- He was there with his son.
- He's saying the photo is fake.
I was never in the pool with the Representative.
The problem is that Moa wasn't trustworthy.
He was totally ruffled about the picture.
In your statements, did anyone tell you to make false allegations against the representative or his son? You need to tell this to the Committee, since it's very important.
Thomaz, it was all Thomaz.
SECRETARY OF INTELLIGENCE He came in saying, "I just want this, this and this" Anything that would harm the Representative.
AMAZON STATE COURT HOUSE I'm Carlos Henrique.
I'm a lawyer.
I worked for five years on the Wallace case.
I have no doubt that Moa was tortured.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY - WALLACE CASE In the police station, he resorted to the right to remain silent.
Then Thomaz Vasconcelos took the case.
He was Secretary of Intelligence at the time.
The target of this operation has always been Representative Wallace.
Every time Moa gave a statement, Thomaz tried to collect info that would incriminate the Representative.
His confession was already written beforehand.
Moa said it had already been prepared.
And he was forced to sign it.
At that point, the persecution of Wallace Souza begins.
STATE ASSEMBLY Is this Parliament for or against me? This lady's statement, saying that her husband had been tortured for them to accuse me of being a gangster Me? For 23 years, I've been dedicating my life to fighting crime.
For 23 years, I've been dedicating my life to helping people.
I can't stand this cowardice anymore.
They are trying to strip me of the role I was elected for.
When I became a Representative, people thought I would change.
That I would forget about the people who helped me.
On the contrary I began to work harder for the humble people.
Wallace Souza conquered the hearts of the people from the city and the countryside with robust proposals to benefit the people of the Amazon State.
I vote for Wallace Souza because he helps families and fights against the violence against women.
He is a person of insurmountable kindness.
But I believe it was at this moment, where he was so powerful in the people's minds, he was considered some sort of sheriff, some kind of fighter against criminality.
The police have the obligation to investigate and give an answer to society.
Unfortunately, it was another weekend marked by blood and violence.
Watch this now In every crime news report, they would question the authorities; the Secretary of Security, the Military Police, the Civil Police They would question why there was no policing in the area.
I have spoken countless times to Governor Eduardo Braga and Secretary Lupércio.
They said, "No, the state cannot help.
" The state is negligent, and is therefore responsible for this situation.
Wallace was interested in becoming Secretary of Security and in controlling the security of the state.
This is a position with a very high political profile in the city of Manaus.
I think there was strong resistance to this possibility that he might become Secretary of Security and become even more powerful than he already was.
What is going on? These people sit in their offices and don't know what it is like in the outside world.
That's the way it is.
They are the ones who criticize us.
They are the ones who want to silence and sue us.
They are not going to silence us.
They won't.
Nobody is going to sue me, because I am a state representative.
But a crook like this needs to be beaten up.
When I think of Wallace, I think of a man who did everything he could to end the corruption we have in our state.
He thought he could change the system.
I don't fight the system.
I'm not crazy.
To understand this stage in Wallace's political persecution, we must talk about the town of Coari.
Wallace always said one of the reasons he was being investigated so viciously was because he was being persecuted by political groups, mainly those who opposed him.
In one of these groups was the Mayor's office.
I could never keep silent about injustices.
I could never shut up.
Where's Coari's CPI? Show them how big the investigation was.
This is the investigation on the city of Coari.
Coari is one of the most prosperous districts in Amazon State because it has the most tax revenue.
It's the largest oil producer.
This is why they want to destroy me.
Because no one else had the courage to investigate.
The Coari to Manaus Pipeline.
An impressive challenge involving complex engineering and logistics to take natural gas from the biggest oil fields in the north of the country to the capital of the Amazon.
Adail Pinheiro was a politician who, in a skillful way, got himself elected mayor of Coari at a moment in which the tax income from the oil exploration was expanding.
In 2000, I ran for mayor, and, thank God, I was elected.
That's when we started changing Coari.
The town was known, mostly, as a developing city.
Despite the huge income from the oil revenues, the population didn't reap any of the benefits of that money.
The mayor there kept almost all of the money.
I spent three years collecting documents, getting witnesses so that we could start an investigation.
Adail Pinheiro, thanks to the tax revenue from the oil exploration, used this money in his populist practices, and he gained immense visibility.
He strutted in the corridors of power.
STATE PROSECUTOR There was an operation in Coari, and they found 12 million reais hidden in a suburban house.
There are strong indications that this money comes from embezzlement.
It was hidden in suitcases.
The Federal Police were investigating the embezzlement and ended up finding in the recordings, in the telephone wiretaps something truly atrocious.
The trail led them to crimes of pedophilia.
FEDERAL POLICE WIRETAPS ASSISTANT: Such a baby.
I just checked her out.
POLITICIAN: Bring her to me at once.
ASSISTANT: Boss, such a baby, what a smile.
Clear white teeth with bright red gums.
- ASSISTANT: Long hair.
- POLITICIAN: Bring her.
ASSISTANT: Okay, on my way.
It was a horrible case.
The girls were picked out at school gates.
Assistants went out in cars with tinted windows and took photos of the girls so that the abuser could choose who was to be taken and abused.
It was a pedophile ring.
Powerful people.
Lots of them.
We were scared of what we were seeing.
No one dared to speak.
COMMUNITY ACTIVIS We managed to help four children at the time.
One of the first victims came to us, crying.
She was so shaken she could hardly talk.
We had to give her some time.
She had been taken to a boat.
She entered, and a woman locked her in.
The man was alone in the cabin.
He was high on drugs, drunk, snorting cocaine There was no one to hear her cries for help.
She was raped on the boat.
It wasn't just her.
She mentioned other children's names.
Some were her classmates.
When I spoke to the prosecutor, he said, "You have no idea how big this ring is.
" Who, among us, as fathers, would not feel anguished, revolted, indignant, in knowing that a daughter raised with love and care is, at the age of 12, seduced, kidnapped and raped? By itself, this account should be enough for all of us, parents, for all of us, good people, to be motivated and driven to act against this gang, against the child abuser, the Mayor Adail Pinheiro.
I'm gonna keep doing my part.
I'm sure that Coari is going to get rid of this cancer called Adail Pinheiro.
He was a god in town, he would pick up little girls, 12, 13, 14 years old.
He'd buy them from their parents.
He would pay a certain amount to rape these girls.
When the mother of a victim told me what happened, I decided to push to open a CPI.
CPI is a Committee of Parliamentary Inquiry.
At the time, Wallace and I decided to fight for the same cause.
We both wanted a CPI.
ASSEMBLY NEWS The Assembly approves the CPI against the mayor of Coari, Adail Pinheiro.
Manaus, June 12, this is Ale Notícias.
As soon as the President of the Assembly announced the CPI, people from Coari started cheering.
In reality, it's not a political group, it's a criminal gang who took power in order to ransack our town's resources.
The leader of the CPI, Wallace Souza, was moved by this historical moment.
There have been many days of tension, worry and expectation.
Above all, anxiety.
All of this aiming at the approval of the CPI.
Not for political advantage, but for the benefit of society.
When he tried to pursue the CPI to prove what had been happening in Coari, he thought that it would propel his political career, but he was actually falling into a snake pit.
I started to receive death threats.
And so did my family, because this guy had a lot of money and power.
I personally reported the names of the policemen who threatened to kill my son and I at the time of the Coari CPI.
Nothing was done.
The threats were constant against children, families It was horrible.
Some of the victims were locked in cars until they were sure they would never speak against Adail Pinheiro.
At one point, we had a plane all ready to go to Coari.
Wallace was going on the trip as well.
I prepared for the trip, as I was a member of the CPI, and I was ready to fulfill my obligation.
So I called the person in charge, and I asked, "When will it depart?" And he said, "Later," when I thought it would leave early.
And afterwards, I realized that the flight wasn't departing at eight or nine.
It was rescheduled to 11:00 a.
m.
I got to a point between 11 and 12 when I called the person in charge and I was told the trip had been called off.
"It's no longer going to happen.
" But it wasn't just the trip that was canceled.
After that happened, the CPI itself came to a halt.
It was terrible news.
The victims were in despair.
They asked, "What's gonna become of us?" Adail Pinheiro was a very cunning person in terms of forging political alliances.
So he strengthened his political position.
I ask the people of Coari for a round of applause The most important ally that Adail had was Governor Eduardo Braga.
Mayor Adail Pinheiro There were already allegations of sexual abuse organized through the city hall.
I don't know if it was Governor Eduardo Braga himself who called the representatives who supported him to put an end to the CPI or if Adail, with the help of his supporters, convinced the other representatives.
I don't have proof and I don't want to make unfounded allegations, but there was political pressure to stop the CPI.
That was very clear.
The CPI on child abuse in Coari, it was closed in 2007, after much controversy.
Then, in 2008, the Wallace case began.
To Wallace's allies, this was a form of revenge.
Governor Eduardo Braga was the arch-enemy of Wallace and his family.
Nobody had heard of Thomaz Vasconcelos before Eduardo Braga.
Suddenly he is appointed Secretary of Intelligence to be his right-hand man.
It was a political appointment, and he took that job to serve the Governor of the State.
An order from the governor will never be disobeyed by the secretary.
Moa said he'd been tortured.
He said, "I was tortured by Thomaz Vasconcelos.
" Since Dr.
Thomaz was a state authority, we called him to be heard in the Assembly.
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE MARCH 17, 2009 Secretary Thomaz was heard, and I remember that at the time, journalists were not allowed in.
So we were waiting outside.
We could see that he had a line of argument to prove that Moa had never been tortured.
The first time I met Moa was witnessed by two prosecutors.
So when, exactly, did I force, coerce, torture or induce him to say anything? I hadn't even met him I'm a policeman, and I am tough with criminals.
I am really tough, but I would never do what he describes.
So did you actually go there in the middle of the night? Never.
At no time, not for a single moment, was Moa tortured.
SECRETARY OF INTELLIGENCE The only defense they had was to discredit our image.
Moacir starts calling me torturer.
I see it like the price we pay.
It is part of the job.
But in the face of so much evidence against Moa this story went up in smoke.
I honestly didn't give it much importance.
No importance.
Based on the explanations and documents given by the Secretary, they were convinced, at the time, that Moa hadn't been tortured, and that's how the press reported it.
STATE REPRESENTATIVES CONCLUDE 'MOA' LIED ABOUT TORTURE Covering the Wallace case was a kind of a roller coaster.
Sometimes new info would show up that was very shocking.
I remember that at the time, someone showed up with new information that changed the whole story.
It was Moa's wife, Mary.
I was invited by Secretary Thomaz to listen to the statement of Moa's wife.
Did your husband work for Wallace Souza? He told me that he did.
What was his job? He told me he worked as a security guard.
When your husband and son were arrested, did you get in touch with a lawyer? No, I went to the Representative's house to speak to him.
Did he speak to you? He didn't want to, but I insisted and told him I wanted a lawyer because my husband needed one.
He said my husband was saying many things that compromised him.
And I said, "If you pay for his lawyer, my husband will take the accusations back.
" She said that she received money from Wallace through Raphael to influence Moa's statements in order to help Wallace.
Whose initiative was this? It was mine.
Secretary Thomaz was there and said, "Can you see it's all lies? He wasn't tortured.
His wife came here to retract.
" If he was tortured, only he knows.
But I didn't see any torture.
First she says he was tortured, then she says he was coerced into saying he was tortured.
I'm not even going to comment.
At the time, for us journalists, we could see she was desperate.
She was desperate to talk, to tell us more.
It looked as if there was something behind it.
It's possible that she was threatened to say there was no torture.
"If you don't take it all back, it's the end of your husband.
" That could have happened.
That happens in Brazil, but I'm not certain.
Maybe only she can tell the truth.
I don't want to talk about that.
Sorry, but that I don't want to go back there.
To this story.
What I want is to carry on with our lives not being angry with anybody.
With no need for revenge.
It's like he used to say, "I want to get out of here with my head held high and looking after my family.
" That's all I want.
The situation of Representative Wallace Souza is getting even more complicated.
In her statement, Mary Teresa said that she received 5,000 reais from Raphael Souza.
According to her, on top of the money, she'd get two flights a month to visit Moa in the Catanduva prison.
That had many repercussions in the media.
This incident created an even more negative image of Wallace.
CHIEF DETECTIVE DIVANILSON CAVALCANTI TASK FORCE LEADER The Task Force kept talking to witnesses, but many were not willing to give an official statement.
They were afraid of the criminal group headed by Wallace Souza.
We heard about a security guard who had had an argument with Wallace Souza.
Edras was a former military police officer.
He would be with the Representative and his team on a daily basis.
We found him and asked him to come to the police station.
One of the crimes described by Edras was about an alleged drug dealer called Henrique.
An alleged drug dealer.
He was attacked on Torquato Tapajós Street.
He was shot four times and died on the spot.
Check it out.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2008 It's 4:20 a.
m.
Here at Torquato Tapajós St.
, in front of the Phillips factory, we were driving past and we spotted this Gol right here, JXL 5850, driven by this guy with black shorts.
When the film crew arrived, he was still in agony and was taking his last breath.
He's alive Look.
We stayed here for one hour waiting for help.
The ambulance didn't come and he died.
I was at home when they broadcast the video.
HENRIQUE'S CHILDHOOD FRIEND His mother was at his house.
She watched everything.
His father fell into depression when he saw it.
He was very handsome.
Fair-skinned with dark brown eyes.
I loved him so much.
When Edras talked about the murder at the gas station, he said that a member of Canal Livre had told him what really happened there.
He did not know why they killed Henrique.
Maybe he was a rival drug dealer.
Whenever there was an execution, the crew from Canal Livre had already been warned.
Somebody working on the show, whose name I'm not saying, told me that the person who killed the drug dealer Henrique was Moa.
And that Raphael was the one driving the vehicle.
Moa had revealed in his statement that Raphael Souza, Wallace's son, was a key person in the criminal organization.
A very dangerous young man I remember the day when Moa's phone records finally arrived.
We looked at the log and I thought, "We've got him.
" Hi, Excellency.
How are you? Let me show you This phone belongs to Moa.
This is hard evidence that he made several calls to all the members of Wallace's staff.
In this organization.
Including the Representative himself, who initially denied knowing him and later admitted he saw him only once.
However, he called Wallace 20 times.
And the rest to his advisers, colonels, captains, privates they were all in constant contact with Moa.
The phone records were clear.
Now we had enough evidence.
We decided our next step.
The Task Force could not get a warrant to search Wallace's house because he had parliamentary immunity.
But they got a warrant to search his son's house, who, as it turns out, lived with the Representative.
I arrived around 4:30 p.
m.
I remember the street was quiet.
Very quiet.
When I got ready to ring the bell at the house, I was told that a white truck was arriving.
We saw it was Raphael.
Can you call my dad, please? Call him, please.
He recognized me and asked to talk to me.
Can I speak to you? Stay with the car while we search so you can't say we took anything.
I said, "We're complying with a court order.
Let the officers search your car.
" - It's not my car.
It's my dad's.
- No problem.
And as he watched the search, we found two .
380 magazines.
I asked him who owned those pistol magazines and he said they belonged to his dad.
We entered the house and we managed to begin the search.
And soon after that, Representative Wallace Souza arrived.
He said that all this was wrong.
That he was going to be Secretary of Security of the Amazon State.
I am going to show those policemen that I will be Secretary of Security.
You'll see.
And that we would pay for that.
At that moment, I noticed other politicians started to show up.
If you'd be so kind Please, please I want to get on with my job.
Damn it! This is not the house of criminals or drug dealers.
Shut up! State representatives, federal deputies, a city councilor, several attorneys I remember that one of the brothers was very agitated.
For God's sake, we've got the Vice-Mayor here, several representatives Many times I would stop and say, "I am only here to proceed with my duty.
I will do my job.
I will perform my duty.
" A war.
I had never experienced anything like that.
WALLACE'S SISTER I was panicking.
It was upsetting.
Because this was so immoral.
That couldn't be happening.
Seeing everybody armed, with heavy weapons.
It was a very difficult thing.
Then we searched Wallace Souza's room.
We came across a small briefcase locked with a combination lock.
I think it's zero-zero-one, but I'm not sure.
- Zero-zero-one? - Yes.
Zero-zero-one-five-five-five or something like that.
We asked the Representative to open it.
He opened it with the combination.
Inside we found, folded up, a small list of weapons.
- Is this your handwriting? - No.
At that moment, we noticed a safe.
We asked the Representative to open it.
We found a large amount of money.
How much is in there? There must be I don't know.
- Approximately? - Between 150 to 200 thousand reais.
No one touched it at any moment, right? Correct.
We started to count the money.
It took us some time to count it.
It was around 243,000 reais, and $15,000.
At that moment, he seemed physically crushed by everything that was happening.
And he started to crumble.
Maybe wondering how to explain having so much money in his house.
I remember that we were the first crew to get there.
The search took a long time.
They have not come out yet.
I was with a very eager photographer, and he was constantly trying to get pictures and pushing other journalists.
We all wanted that key image to send to the newsroom.
We went to Raphael Souza's room.
We noticed a locked cabinet.
Wallace Souza called Raphael.
He asked him what was in there.
He said, "Dad, there's nothing.
Nothing.
" "So open it.
" And Raphael said, "Dad, I don't know where the key is.
It's been a while since I opened it.
" I remember he was very nervous at the time.
When we opened it, I remember that we found a plastic bag with around nine spent bullets.
And also a folded piece of paper.
I asked, "What is this?" He then said he didn't know.
I immediately noticed it was a list.
A list of drug dealers that had been killed by the criminal group.
Raphael could not explain what the list was.
In addition to that, we found 9mm ammunition and other types of ammunition.
Right then and there, he went from witness in the search to someone to be detained.
Raphael Souza was taken into custody.
The Representative's security guards made a sort of cordon.
He claimed he wasn't feeling well.
He faked an illness.
Raphael got ill.
Raphael got really sick.
I'm not a criminal.
The press outside the house, many of them said, "Now it's your turn.
It's your turn to be on TV.
" The operation was a huge success.
The evidence we gathered confirmed all of the statements we had collected.
Once the raid was over, I remember I went home and slept soundly.
The Task Force was getting close to Representative Wallace Souza.
In 2014, Adail Pinheiro was sentenced to 11 years in prison for heading a pedophilia network.
Allegations of Raphael Souza's involvement in the murder at the gas station were never proven.
Raphael Souza was never charged for the murder of Henrique Ribeiro.