Rio de Janeiro police carry out operation against irregular construction

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Civil police officers from the Environmental Protection police precinct and the General Department of Specialized Police have launched today (6), in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Operation Socó.

It aims to carry out 10 search and seizure warrants against people involved in the financing, construction, and irregular licensing of a seven-story building with 33 apartments located in Saquarema, in the state’s Lake Region. The estimated value of the construction is R$20 (US$4) million.

The investigations also aim to verify if illegal militia, long involved in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, have migrated to the Lakes Region, and if they have expanded their business in similar enterprises. The court also ordered the suspension of the enterprise’s activities.

According to the Rio de Janeiro Secretary of Civil Police, besides Saquarema, the operation takes place in Rio de Janeiro and Queimados, in the Baixada Fluminense suburbs.

In Tuesday’s action, the agents are searching for evidence of the crimes of irregular parceling of urban land, which characterizes irregular construction; lack of environmental licensing; administrative advocacy; fraud in environmental licensing; active and passive corruption and criminal association and money laundering.

According to the secretariat, all this was evidenced in the ongoing investigation, an unfolding of investigations that resulted in the interdiction, in December 2020, of two residential buildings under construction in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, in the west zone of Rio. The name of the operation alludes to the socó bird, which inhabits the Saquarema lagoon.