Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco was gunned down in her car in March 2018. New arrests and a police report reveal ties between officials and criminal gangs.
The investigation stalled for five years until the mandate of social democratic president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to investigators, the Brazão brothers hired Rivaldo Barbosa's services to "ensure impunity in advance" "This is a fundamental investigation to understand the depth of the abyss in which Rio finds itself," former left-wing deputy Marcelo Freixo wrote.