Authorities swoop across Brazil in search of ‘kidnap plot’

• Police conducted 24 raids in the capital.
• Federal police in Brazil arrested nine suspected members of a criminal cell.
• The gang was linked to Brazil’s greatest criminal organization.

During operations around the country to prevent an alleged murder and kidnapping plot, federal police in Brazil arrested nine suspected members of a criminal cell.

The plots included several politicians and public figures, according to investigators.

Senator Sergio Moro, a former judge who oversaw Brazil’s largest-ever corruption investigation, was also suspected of being targeted.

According to police sources, the gang was linked to Brazil’s greatest criminal organization.

On Wednesday, police conducted 24 raids in the capital, Brasilia, as well as in the states of Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondonia, and Parana.

According to federal authorities, the organization was planning “homicides and kidnapping for ransom” in at least five of Brazil’s 26 states, with the targets being “public personnel and officials.”

“A murder plot against several public officials was investigated and identified. Today the Federal Police is making arrests and searches against this gang,” Justice Minister Flavio Dino said on Twitter.

Mr. Dino did not name the people targeted in the gang’s operation, but Senator Moro stated on social media that he and his family had been targeted.

He accused Brazil’s most powerful criminal organization, First Capital Command (PCC), of plotting retaliation against him and other public officials.

According to sources, a government minister stated that the plan was organized by the gang and was not politically motivated.

Mr. Moro ordered the transfer of prominent gang members, including the PCC’s boss, to a maximum-security jail during his tenure as justice minister between 2019 and 2020.

The gang, a major cocaine exporter, has been linked to the assassination of a prominent Paraguayan prosecutor last year.

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