2023-07-19 17:07:00
Case happened in August last year in a shed located on Avenida Tamandaré
The truck and the drugs were found in the shed belonging to the couple’s workshop (Photo: Arquivo/Paulo Francis)
The owner of a mechanical workshop located on Avenida Tamandaré, in Campo Grande, arrested in August 2022 on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking, managed to prove her innocence, but claims that the case destroyed her life.
To the Campo Grande News, the businesswoman, who prefers to keep her identity a secret, said that the day before the events, a regular customer of the workshop took a pickup truck to the location and asked for an urgent repair.
Because of this, her husband, who is a mechanic, and other employees, worked until 8 pm to complete the job. As they would deliver the vehicle in the morning of the following day and her husband could not be present to deliver the car to the customer, she handed the key to the boy and said that as soon as he looked for the truck, he would leave the key to the shed at the family workshop, located 1 km away.
The following day, the Civil, Federal and Military police carried out an Operation to find the drugs that were being investigated. Before entering the shed belonging to the couple’s workshop, they went to two other places.
In the shed, the agents stated that they found a truck prepared to receive the narcotics and two tons of drugs distributed in several tablets leaning against a wall. The woman said that the shed was used to park vehicles that were being repaired at the workshop.
Since no one was there when the drugs were discovered, they found a water bill and called the owner. To the police, the owner of the shed stated that she rented the space for the couple and gave the name and address of the couple’s workshop.
The agents then went to the workshop and found the woman. When they confirmed her identity, they took her to the shed and gave a voice of arrest in the act.
The woman was taken to the Denar (Specialized Police Station for the Repression of Drug Trafficking), where the case was registered. The family’s lawyer, Luiz Kevin Barbosa, told the report that the arrest was made in error, as the act would only happen if the woman was in the shed when the police invaded the space.
In addition, he stated that the shed was not being investigated in advance and that the police did not even have the couple’s name as suspects, who only had access to their identity because the owner of the place passed it on to them.
The trauma – After being arrested, the case was publicized in the press and, in the following days, began to directly affect the family’s routine, since the couple has two children aged 10 and 12 years. At school, classmates found out that their mother had been arrested on suspicion of trafficking and began to bully the children.
“They no longer wanted to go, they cried not to go to school. When they were away, a coordinator went to my eldest son’s room and explained to his class that he was no longer going, because people with the nature of their parents could not have children at the school. A friend of his called him to tell him what the coordinator had said in the room. Then they didn’t want to go anymore,” said the woman.
After spending 22 days in prison, the woman was released, but had to wear an electronic anklet. However, when she left, she made a point of trying to get back on her feet, as she said she knew she owed nothing to Justice in relation to what happened.
“I didn’t think about changing my address, or house, or workshop. I don’t owe anything, I got out of jail on Saturday and on Monday the workshop was already open. It had been closed for 15 days. I lost a lot of customers because of that, a lot of people would come here and say: the newspaper workshop. Others were more discreet, they came here saying that there was a garage nearby that had been closed for drugs. They knew it was here.”
However, the nightmare that seemed to have passed returned to haunt the family at the end of last year, when her husband was arrested, after an arrest warrant was issued against him.
The lawyer alleges that, in one of the hearings, he argued that it was necessary to present concrete evidence of the investigation, regarding the couple’s participation in the case, which until then had not occurred. In response, he heard from the judge that “it doesn’t matter how the drug was taken, it matters that we took it”. Due to the speech, he will appeal in court, because for him, how the drug was seized matters, yes.
In addition, the process contains the name of the customer who left the truck at the workshop, but since the day of the seizure, he has not been located.
“The shed was not being investigated because the police don’t have a photo of this guy arriving at the shed, leaving. They have no proof of who left it there, who went to get it, how the drug got into the shed”, said the defense.
Due to everything that happened, the couple’s children are psychologically shaken, mainly due to the absence of their father.
“Everything changed overnight, my daughters, who were quiet children, just cried every day. She failed school last year, and she was a great student, she couldn’t perform in school and I couldn’t even charge her, “said the woman.
Seven months later, wearing an ankle bracelet, the businesswoman again went through a custody hearing and, that day, told her again about everything she went through. The judge in the case understood that she had nothing to do with drugs and cleared her.
The husband, however, was sentenced to six years in a semi-open regime. But so far, he still hasn’t been able to leave prison. “If they had a quantity of drugs like that, the family’s financial situation would be different. They also know that the truck has no connection with the couple, and they did not present an investigation report”, said the lawyer, who reported the family’s financial situation.
“My client agreed to break bank and telephone secrecy, precisely to prove their standard of living. They have a popular car, they have debts, ”she said. Now, the defense is trying to overturn the sentence to free the man from the trafficking charge.
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