Source: Cruzeiro do Sul Online - Sorocaba / SP - 20/08/2010

Sorocaba's Antissequestro Group (GAS) captured five wanted people who formed a fuel adulteration ring. The arrests took place in the cities of Araçoiaba da Serra, Itupeva, Osasco and São Paulo, between August 10 and 16, according to delegate Rodrigo Ayres. The Portuguese Hugo Manoel Beijoca Patrão, 42, would be the leader of the group that adulterated fuels in a solvent factory on Rua Aurélia Luíza Maria Zanon, in Jardim Iporanga.

The adulteration center was closed in June 2005 and six people were arrested at the time, including operations manager Darcy Vieira Antunes, who was later released and arrested again last week. Temporary arrest warrants for the five defendants had been issued by the courts in 2008, but in order not to be found, most of them moved to another city.

The charge against them is a crime against a consumption relationship, a crime against an economic order, conspiracy, producing toxic substances and constituting a potentially polluting establishment. The last two crimes are of an environmental nature. For the group's arrest, there was collaboration between GAS, the Civil Police Captures Division and the Public Prosecution Service's Special Action Group for the Repression of Organized Crime (Gaeco).

According to Rodrigo Ayres, Hugo used the false name of Hugo Leston in order to open the company HR Distribuidora de Produtos Químicos. He lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro and was arrested in Itupeva, in the Jundiaí region. In the same city, GAS arrested Alfredo Morano Filho, 50. Rosely Magagnato Prado, 47, and Roberta de Medeiros Cunha, 34, were listed as partners in the distributor and were also arrested.

Roberta was a kind of orange because she lent her name to the company that defrauded fuel. But according to the deputy, she knew of the illegality. As payment for the name, he received R $ 2 thousand monthly. All five were questioned at the GAS, which collected new information on how the adulteration scheme worked.

With Hugo, checks and false documents under the name of Hugo Lesson da Silva were apprehended, possibly for the application of swindles. The Civil Police and the Public Ministry will investigate his activities in Rio de Janeiro and Portugal, where he was before he came to Brazil.