“A logger’s cell phone with my photo was already seized, and written underneath: ‘Target to be slaughtered’. Recently, I know, my name was found in a PCC cell in Presidente Venceslau in a list of people marked, I don’t know if to die or to be located, but anyway there is this risk, it was detected (…) But why does this happen? Not to mention attacks in the form of a Writ of Mandamus, which I have already responded to over 200, and disciplinary proceedings. You start to be bothered from all sides. Now, where do you take it? Operationally it is easy to solve, detected the ferry [de garimpo ilegal], go there and destroy the ferry. This, with regularity, ends up falling. Now, what ‘sticks’ is when the political coverage of criminals arrives, because these criminals have a good part of politicians from the North region in their pockets. And I’m talking about governors, senators… I have a collection of letters from senators from the various states of the Amazon, which they sent to my boss, asking, saying that I was going beyond the limits of the law, that I was commenting on abuse of authority. There was a senator along with a logger threatening me. Anyway, what ‘gets’ is this (…) Look at Centrão, see where most of Centrão’s parliamentarians came from. They are financed by these groups, with absolute certainty. Absolutely sure. Look, I’ll name names: Zequinha Marinho [senador pelo Partido Liberal do Pará]was together with [o então ministro do Meio Ambiente] Ricardo Salles on Handroanthus Day [ação policial que, em dezembro de 2020, investigou madeireiras ilegais no Pará e Amazonas]; [os senadores] Telmário Mota and Mecia de Jesus [do Republicanos de Roraima]Jorginho Melo [do Partido Liberal, de Santa Catarina] sent a letter; [a deputada do PL de São Paulo] Carla Zambelli went there to defend a logger, too, with Ricardo Salles. In other words, we have a crime scene. A bench, in my opinion, of marginals, of bandits. They are thugs, even because of the way they behaved the day I was invited to attend the hearing. [no ano passado] there in the Chamber of Deputies, in the Participatory Legislation Commission. I, who have been to so many criminal hearings, with criminal lawyers sitting in front of me, I have never been so disrespected by criminals, imprisoned there, as that day there in the Chamber. The deputies were making a clear defense of the crime. And, by the way, this became fashionable in Brazil (…) They [os parlamentares federais] were aware of what was happening because they received expert reports that were on a Writ of Mandamus showing, unequivocally, that that wood [131 mil metros cúbicos em toras apreendidas] was of illegal origin. And you know what the biggest proof is that I’m telling the truth? I’ve said this several times: I’ve never been sued, because I have, like, two supermarket trolleys of evidence (…) It’s absurd. parliamentarians to mobilize in this way, as they did there [no Congresso], then I have no doubt that they committed a crime. And covered by parliamentary immunity. “
(Alexandre Saraiva, former head of the Federal Police in Amazonas, yesterday, to Marcelo Lins, Andreia Sadi, Natuza Nery, Octavio Guedes and Daniel Sousa, from Globo News.)