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Former military policeman Alan Morais Nogueira was detained Tuesday morning, July 24, suspected of being in the car that fired on the vehicle containing Black activist and Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle France, killing her and her driver Anderson Gomes.
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Brazilian Rights Activist Marielle Franco Assassinated in Rio
Former fireman Luis Claudio Ferreira Barbosa, also accused of being in the assassin's car, was also taken into custody. Both men were detained on suspicion of being part of a militia group controlled by Orlando Oliveira de Araujo, also known as Orlando da Curicica, and killing a military policeman and a former military policeman at the behest of the illegal organization.
Orlando Curicia is a former policeman who's currently serving a prison sentence in Rio de Janeiro's state penitentiary called Bangu 9.
An anonymous informant held at the Homicide Precinct of Rio de Janeiro provided authorities with a tip leading to the two men in connection with the assassination of Marielle. The informant noted that Morais Nogueira once worked in the Mare barracks, the favela ccommunity, Complexo da Mare, where Marielle was raised.
The informant also revealed that the former policeman and former fireman were accompanied by two other men in the silver Cobalt that fired on Marielle's vehicle.
Investigators believe that Morais Nogueira can help reconstruct the events that claimed the life of the Black activist and her driver on Mar. 14, and solve the motives behind the killings by disarticulating the inner workings of the militia, according to O Povo.
In May, media reports indicated that an unidentified witness gave testimony to federal police, claiming that those responsible for ordering Marielle's execution were Orlando Curicia and Rio de Janeiro city councilman Marcello Siciliano.
According to the witness, who claims to have worked for a militia led by Curicicia in the city's west zone, the motive for the assassination was Marielle's community activism, which was taking place in areas controlled by the group. The witness stated that the order to execute Marielle came directly from Curicica, who used a cellphone inside the prison to contact his henchmen and gave the order.
Marielle and Gomes, were executed in a barrage of bullets at her car while returning home from an event in central Rio de Janeiro called "Young Black Women Moving Structures" on March 15.
Three days before she was murdered, Marielle denounced the deaths of two youths during a military police operation in the Acari favela.
“We must speak loudly so that everybody knows what is happening in Acari right now. The 41st Military Police Battalion of Rio de Janeiro is terrorizing and violating Acari residents. This week two youths were killed and tossed in a ditch. Today, the police walked the streets threatening residents. This has always happened, and with the military intervention things have gotten worse,” she wrote on Twitter.
Also, two weeks earlier Franco was named a rapporteur in the special commission established by the city council to monitor the military intervention in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Investigators have revealed that the 9mm bullets that killed Marielle were part of a lot bought by federal police in 2006.
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