Prosecutor Silvio Corbeta stressed that the Minister of the Interior, Federico González, collaborated with the investigation in the case of Arnaldo Giuzzio, by providing all the information regarding the expenses reserved during the administration of his predecessor, who is currently charged by the benefits received by drug trafficker Marcus Vinicius Espíndola.
Prosecutor Silvio Corbeta collected several documents from the Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday in the framework of the case investigating the alleged aggravated passive bribery (bribery) by former head Arnaldo Giuzzio, with the alleged Brazilian drug trafficker Marcus Vinicius Espíndola.
In an interview with the Universo 970 AM and UNO 650 AM radio stations, the fiscal agent said that he went to the Ministry headquarters to verify the documents of the reserved payments made by former Minister Giuzzio. He commented that there he was received by the current Minister of the Interior, Federico González, who provided him with all the existing documentation.
“We ask for justification of reserved expenses from January 2021, until February of this year, maintenance of armored vehicles, whether or not there was a call for tenders. The Minister very kindly handed over the information, he even made himself available to hand over more”, he highlighted about the collaborative attitude in providing the data to the Public Ministry.
The case is investigating whether Giuzzio used the reserved expenses to pay Marcus Vinicius for the armored trucks that were repaired, but it is also presumed that elsewhere the work would have been for royalties of the drug trafficker interested in being a supplier to the National Police . This considering that there was no prior call or tender for the repair of the vehicles.
In this sense, the intervener highlighted that “the Ministry of the Interior does not have what was spent (the reserved ones), due to the nature of this type of expenses, they do not have it. There are no records of reserved expenses and what the money was used for.” What he was able to confirm is that there was no tender to repair the wheels.
Yesterday, prosecutors Osmar Legal and Alicia Sapriza charged the former Minister of the Interior with aggravated passive bribery and asked the court to apply alternative measures to prison. Today, José Agustín Delmas, Criminal Judge of Guarantees, admitted the accusation and set for August 25, at 08:30, the hearing for the imposition of precautionary measures.
Brazil reveals connection between drug trafficker and former minister Arnaldo Giuzzio
Find out more here: https://t.co/lWlX3sRVSR. pic.twitter.com/mUCGTIFkXn
– Newspaper TODAY Paraguay (@hoypy) August 17, 2022
It must be remembered that the publications of the newspaper La Nación uncovered six months ago the closeness between Arnaldo Giuzzio, when he was serving as Minister of the Interior, and the Brazilian drug trafficker arrested in his country last February.
Now, the Prosecutor’s Office acted immediately upon receiving convincing information from its counterpart in Brazil, from where they sent evidence (chats and audios) of the conversations between the drug trafficker detained in the neighboring country and the then highest authority of the Ministry of the Interior.
According to the intervening prosecutor Osmar Lega, Giuzzio allegedly received many benefits from Marcos Vinicius, which constitutes the crime of aggravated passive bribery (bribery). This is more than proven in the evidence that the prosecution has.
