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Brazilian paedophile mayor forced terrified families to hand over hundreds of girls

Source: Agencies | November 18, 2014, Tuesday | Online Edition

"SHE'S a little baby, chief, now I'm looking at her properly, what a baby," said the voice at the end of the telephone. "Beautiful smile, white, white skin, long hair… makes your mouth water."

"My God, bring her her to me to see right now," came the excited reply.

The call between two paedophiles lining up their next victim for abuse and recorded by police investigators would leave Brazil in a state of shock, Daily Mail reported yesterday.

For decades, a town had been run by a gang of predatory paedophiles - most of whose members held powerful positions in the council, judiciary and even local schools, the report said.

The first voice on the taoe is that of Adriano Salan, the Minister of Administration in Coari, a wealthy town of 77,000 in the Brazilian Amazon, 280 miles west of Manaus, according to the report.

His "chief" and the gang's leader is Adail Pinheiro - the town's mayor.

After the taped conversation was made public, victims and witnesses started to come forward and the the true scale of the horror happening in this remote jungle town was finally exposed, the report said.

Those in the ring included the mayor's chief of staff and closest aides, council ministers, military policemen and countless other employees, including drivers, secretaries and the mayor's housekeepers, according to dozens of testimonies given to prosecutors, the report said.

They are accused of using money from public coffers to finance the abuse and rape of hundreds of girls aged between nine and 15, all on the orders of Pinheiro, 51, now in his third term as mayor, the report said.

Disturbingly, some of that money is believed to have come from royalties paid by oil and gas companies, including British oil giant BP, the report said.

And for decades they had been allowed to operate openly and with impunity - counting on the participation of police chiefs and judges to silence victims and halt any attempts to investigate the claims.

Sickeningly, the mayor would have a team of staff who would wait near the gates of schools and outside churches in the town, taking photos and video footage of young girls, according to allegations made by a former employee.

The material, he claimed, was then taken to Pinheiro, who would action another team, tasked with contacting the girls families and offering everything from money, mobile phones, computers, even jobs, land and houses, to parents in exchange for their daughters.

Few girls "chosen" by the mob would escape being abused - often at private parties on boats or on board a council medical plane, according to allegations heard by police investigators.

The mayor was known to prefer the youngest girls, and particularly virgins, for whom he would pay as much as £1000. Last New Year one of his aides allegedly promised a 13-year-old virgin girl for him "as a New Year's Eve present".

The gang's grip on the town was so strong that few ever dared speak out, fearing retaliations and even death threats, the report said.

Families often felt they had no choice but to hand over their children for abuse.

It was later found that 70 investigations had been started against Pinheiro - and every one of them halted or shelved by a "web of protection" provided by corrupt officials, including even federal judges.

He was even arrested after being accused of child abuse in 2008 - but was inexplicably released and the case dropped after just 63 days, the report said.

Even the horrific phone calls between Pinheiro and his staff were only discovered by police at the beginning of this year - seven years after they were first recorded during another shelved investigation - after a flagship Brazilian TV programme began to probe the claims.

Following a national public outcry, Pinheiro and five other ringleaders named in the tapes were arrested in January this year and transferred to a prison in Manaus, the report said.

Eleven months later, however, an investigation by MailOnline has found that nothing has changed in Coari, where poor families are still at the mercy of the paedophile gang who are in control of the town council.

While Pinheiro remains in custody in Manaus, he is believed to still command the group, who have reportedly been threatening and bribing families of victims to change their statements on his orders, according to the report.

 

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