Toffoli Frees Four in Minas Gerais Illegal Mining Probe, Imposes Electronic Monitoring

Overview

• Supreme Court minister Dias Toffoli revoked preventive detention on Friday for Rodrigo de Melo Teixeira, João Alberto Paixão Lages, Alan Cavalcante do Nascimento, and Helder Adriano de Freitas, all arrested in September in Operação Rejeito.
• The released suspects must wear ankle monitors, surrender passports, stay within their home jurisdictions, observe night-time home confinement on weekdays with full weekend restrictions, and report address changes.
• Teixeira was additionally suspended from his post at the federal geology company CPRM and barred from contacting colleagues, and Nascimento received a proximity restriction related to a property in Nova Lima.
• Citing references to a sitting federal deputy in seized material, Toffoli kept part of the inquiry under Supreme Court supervision and sent the remainder back to the Federal Court in Minas Gerais, while PF, MPF, and Receita continue the probe.
• Investigators allege a scheme that used shell companies, bribes, and forged documents to extract iron ore without licenses in sensitive areas such as the Serra do Curral, estimating illicit profits of about R$ 1.5 billion and pointing to suspected favoritism within the ANM.