Brazilian federal tax auditor Francisco Eliezer Viana da Silva, suspected of receiving R$ 6.8 million in bribes from a scheme that defrauded imports through Fortaleza's airport, in northeastern Brazil, tried to get rid of his own cell phone by throwing it into the toilet's water tank when Federal Police agents arrived to arrest him on Tuesday (25). The information was given to news site g1 by a source close to the investigations.
According to g1's reporting, agents had to break into the auditor's apartment after he failed to answer the door. Once inside, the team found that the phone had been thrown into the toilet tank. The device was recovered, but it is still unknown whether its files can be restored. The arrest was part of Operation Snooker 2, a joint action by the Receita Federal (Brazil's tax authority), the Federal Police and federal prosecutors that served 15 search and seizure warrants in the Ceará cities of Fortaleza, Caucaia and Eusébio, and in Salvador, Bahia. Two businessmen, Rodolfo Sergio Martins Maia and Hugo Andrade Mendonça Santos, were arrested in Bahia, and assets such as luxury cars and watches were seized.
A tenured civil servant at the tax authority since 1994, Eliezer had held his post at Fortaleza's airport since December 2016 and earned more than R$ 30,000 a month. In June 2026, already under investigation, he received R$ 44,000 thanks to a year-end bonus. He worked at the airport customs inspection office and is identified by investigators as the head of a criminal organization active since at least 2020, suspected of irregularly interfering in customs clearance and leaking confidential foreign trade information in exchange for bribes.
The scheme
According to the investigation, the group was split into four branches (public, business, financial and support) and operated on two fronts. In one, an importer run by a businessman from Ceará brought in silver jewelry declared as costume jewelry made of common metal, with a far lower tax value, counting on Eliezer's help to obtain fraudulent expert reports. In the other, a couple of Chinese nationality who ran another importer underinvoiced electronics to pay less tax, also with the auditor's intercession; the bribes paid by this group are estimated at at least R$ 2.5 million.
The tax authority identified more than R$ 27 million in transactions between companies linked to the scheme and the purchase of about R$ 31.8 million in cryptoassets with no compatibility with declared income. More than R$ 26 million has already been frozen in corporate and personal bank accounts, in addition to the seizure of imported vehicles and a luxury boat. According to local newspaper Diário do Nordeste, courts also ordered the freezing of up to R$ 40 million in corporate accounts.
The suspects may face charges of criminal organization, corruption, money laundering and import fraud. Eliezer's lawyer, Marcelo Oliveira, told g1 he was surprised by the arrest order, since the auditor had already been the target of a search and seizure warrant and had been formally charged by federal prosecutors, with no new facts since then. He said the defense is taking "all necessary legal measures to reverse the arrest decree, beyond demonstrating his innocence in the criminal case". G1 could not reach the lawyers of the two arrested businessmen.