SAO PAULO: Brazil’s federal police said today they were carrying out new raids as part of a probe into the Jan 8 riots in Brasilia, in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings.
They were serving three arrest warrants and eight search and seizure warrants in the states of Minas Gerais and Parana, a statement said.
The raids represent the seventh phase of an operation launched in mid-January to identify people who participated in, funded or fostered the riots, in which a mob invaded and ransacked the Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court.
Police did not disclose the names of those targeted in today’s raids, but said they were being investigated for crimes of “violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d’etat, qualified damage, criminal association, incitement, destruction and deterioration of specially protected property”.