Police investigate ‘Chief Milton’ relationship with protection of businesspeople linked to the PCC

A message from the 3rd reserve sergeant of the PM Nereu Aparecido Alves indicates, according to a military police investigation (IPM), the proximity of the group of police officers led by captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira with the then president of the São Paulo City Council, Milton Leite (União Brasil).

Alexandre is named in an investigation by the PM’s Internal Affairs Department that gave rise to Operation Kratos, launched on the 4th, as leader of a security scheme for directors of the bus company Transwolff, linked to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).

The former councilor told the Estadão who doesn’t know Sergeant Nereu. He also said that his escort was always carried out by the Chamber’s Military Advisory and that he was never involved in the schedule of police officers who accompanied him. Milton Leite categorically denied any link with a protection scheme for businesspeople linked to the PCC.

It was at Sergeant Nereu’s house that the PM’s Internal Affairs Division seized a suitcase with R$1 million in cash during the Operation Kratos searches. Nereu and the captain were arrested in the operation, as was sergeant Alexandre Aleixo Romano Cezário.

Four other police officers are being investigated on suspicion of being part of the criminal organization, including Lieutenant Colonel José Henrique Martins Flores, a warrant officer, a sergeant and a corporal.

THE Estadão seeks contact with the police defense team. The space is open.

Leite has always vehemently denied any connection with the businessmen being investigated or with the Transwolff protection scheme. He left the municipal legislature in December 2024 after seven consecutive terms, which totaled 28 years at Palácio Anchieta, headquarters of the Chamber.

The message from third sergeant Nereu Aparecido Alves, rescued by the Internal Affairs Department, which indicates close relationships with the group of police officers led by captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira, took place on August 18, 2023. And it was recorded on the cell phone of businessman Cícero de Oliveira, known as Té, from Transwolff, one of the targets of Operation End of the Line, which investigated the co-optation of part of São Paulo’s public transport by the faction.

Nereu, according to the PM’s Internal Affairs Department, warned Té that he would be “fulfilling an agenda and that it would take time, as he was at the inauguration of the school named after ‘boss Milton’s mother”.

According to the Internal Affairs Department, “Milton is the former councilor Milton Leite, from União Brasil, and the school in question is the Nathalia Pereira da Silva Early Childhood Education Center”. The name of the center is a tribute to the former councilor’s mother.

The Internal Affairs Department shows in the Military Police Inquiry that the event was attended by Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB).

In the conversation, the sergeant tells businessman Té that he had “the boss’s cell phone”, which is why he didn’t answer. And he claims that “the captain” gave him the device. At the time, Nereu was already in the reserve, therefore, there would be, in theory, no connection between him and the Military Advisory of the Chamber of Councilors, where the captain worked.

On the afternoon of this Friday, the 6th, councilor Ricardo Teixeira (União), current president of the Chamber of Councilors, asked the Public Security Secretariat to evaluate the need to reformulate the House’s Military Advisory, giving it the autonomy to replace the current ones and appoint new ones for the sector.

In 2023, the Public Ministry of São Paulo obtained from the 2nd Court of Tax Crimes, Criminal Organization and Laundering of Assets and Valuables of the Capital the breaking of the banking secrecy of the then president of the Chamber of Councilors of São Paulo. The measure had been obtained as part of investigations into the company Transwolff.

The Prosecutor’s Office suspected that Leite had played a relevant role in the crimes being investigated around the company and its directors.

The former councilor was close to Pandora – president of Transwolff, who had pre-trial detention ordered during Operation Fim da Linha, on April 9, 2024. On that occasion, Gaeco – the arm of the Prosecutor’s Office that combats organized crime – filed a complaint for criminal association and PCC money laundering against Pandora and nine other defendants, but did not include the then councilor among those accused.

According to the Internal Affairs investigation, 3rd Sergeant Nereu was considered Captain Alexandre’s right-hand man in managing the security contract with Transwolff. He is also named in the records as one of the PMs employed in the personal security of businessman Luiz Carlos Efigênio Pacheco, known as Pandora, as well as making cash deposits in banks at the request of another person investigated in the case, Cícero de Oliveira, known as “Té”.

“It is possible that Nereu carried out an escort service for valuables to the bank,” wrote inspector Fábio Sérgio do Amaral.

The investigation analyzed WhatsApp messages between Té and Sergeant Nereu and found that they had conversations between September 12, 2020 and April 8, 2024, one day before the start of Operation Fim da Linha, when Té’s cell phone was seized.

According to the investigation, the existence of an “affective relationship” between Cícero and Sergeant Nereu was proven, when the businessman uses the address “friend” when addressing the PM”.

“It is also clear that the inactive military officer performs security and escort services for the businessman”, highlighted the PM inspector.

The Internal Affairs wanted to know why a reserve police officer would be accompanying Milton Leite and treating him as “boss”? At the time of the message, the captain was the head of the Military Advisory of the Chamber of Councilors. Investigators want to know whether the former councilor’s security used reserve police officers and who hired Nereu.

Nereu’s presence in protecting Transwolff directors would have been detected in messages from 2020. In one of them, Té said he was upset with “the latest events that ended up involving the name of the Rota police officers and the company Transwolff, which would have been a reason for the Rota commander to remove the military police officers from service”.

Among them was Nereu, who requested a transfer to the reserve after the PMs’ relationship was discovered for the first time in the context of Operation Sharks, launched by the Special Action and Combating Organized Crime Group (Gaeco) to investigate money laundering at the top of the PCC.

For the Internal Affairs Department, it was proven that Té hired military police officers from Rota, and that there was, in fact, institutional discomfort with these military officers providing security services for Transwolff. But, even after the first phase of Operation Sharks, police continued to escort the company’s directors.

In another audio, according to the Internal Affairs Department, it was clear that Nereu also provided security for Pandora. “At the time of the events, (Pandora) had already been denounced in the first phase of Operation Sharks, due to involvement with the PCC”, states the Internal Affairs Department.

The magistrates concluded by asking for the arrest of Nereu and other police officers. “One of the outer edges of this problem, which is no longer just a matter of public security, but of society as a whole, is precisely the need to overcome the institutionalized protection that criminals receive from State agents, especially military police officers. In fact, it is worth remembering that there is no organized crime without co-option and infiltration of agents.”

In a note, when Operation Kratos was launched last Wednesday, the 4th, the São Paulo City Council informed that of the police officers mentioned “only Captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira works in the Military Police Advisory of the São Paulo City Council”. He highlighted that the captain had been a member of the body since October 2014, “in other words, he served uninterruptedly during the administrations of five presidents”.

According to the House, the captain’s position “is trustworthy and, in the duties related to Military Advisory in the Chamber, there is no record that discredits him”.

“Sergeant Nereu did not work in the Military Police Advisory of the São Paulo City Council. The escort of the presidents of the Chamber is carried out exclusively by the Military Advisory staff and the work schedule is the exclusive responsibility of the command of said advisory.”

And he concluded: “The other two arrested PMs, including the one who kept cash according to the press, are not and have never been employees of the Chamber’s Military Advisory.”

WITH THE WORD, MILTON LEITE

The former councilor stated through his advisor that he does not know Sergeant Nereu. He also said that his escort was always carried out by the chamber’s Military Advisory and that he was never involved in the schedule of police officers who accompanied him.