Brazilian police are investigating eight people, including three civil police officers and a digital influencer, over a staged police raid used to steal R$ 800,000 in cash and 30 kilograms of gold from a house in the Caçari neighborhood of Boa Vista, capital of the northern state of Roraima, on March 29, 2026. The case advanced on Wednesday (26), when Amazonas police commissioner John Allan Cunha Castilho and investigator Diego Gabriel Rodrigues de Araújo had their preventive arrest warrants served by the Federal Police in Amazonas state, in the second phase of the probe led by Draco, the organized crime unit of the Roraima Civil Police, according to g1 and local newspaper FolhaBV.

According to the investigation, influencer Ivan Luiz Bastos Guimarães, 33, known online as "Itz Ivan", brokered gold sales for wildcat miners and decided to double-cross both sides of a deal scheduled at his own home. Around 7 p.m., armed men wearing hoods and dark, police-style clothing stormed the property carrying badges and using an unmarked official police car, simulated an on-the-spot arrest, subdued the gold buyer and Ivan himself, who posed as a victim, and fled with the ore and the cash.

Who is under investigation

Draco assigns distinct roles to the eight suspects. Ivan is described as one of the masterminds and the scheme's financial operator; he has been charged and was arrested on August 21 in Florianopolis, in southern Brazil, where officers seized phones, computers and a luxury car. After the robbery he was threatened by miners, fled to Manaus and bought high-value properties, g1 reports. Castilho, the influencer's cousin, allegedly recruited Araújo, provided tactical cover outside the house and helped his cousin take the proceeds to Amazonas. Roraima investigator Marcelo Henrique de Araújo Sobral allegedly commanded the fake raid and received at least R$ 200,000 from the sale of the gold; arrested in the first phase, he is now free under electronic ankle monitoring and has been suspended from duty. During the police action he was also caught in the act of procedural fraud after damaging his own phone, according to g1. His brother-in-law, Guilherme Santana da Silva, entered the house alongside the officers after being promised R$ 150,000 and confessed to the police. Sobral's wife, Ariane Cabral Paes, was also arrested in the first phase. In all, three of the eight suspects are in custody, one is on the run and four are responding while free.

The first phase, launched on August 21, served four temporary arrest warrants and five search and seizure warrants, and courts froze about R$ 20 million in assets. The probe involves Roraima police internal affairs, the state prosecutors' organized crime unit (Gaeco) and the external oversight office for police activity. Investigators are also examining other robberies attributed to members of the group that allegedly caused losses of more than R$ 23 million in the state; FolhaBV reports a January episode in the town of Alto Alegre in which the seizure of gold from a miner was allegedly staged.

Timeline and the defense's case

• January 2026: internal affairs opens inquiries that identify a Roraima Civil Police car being used in crimes, according to g1; FolhaBV dates the start of the investigation to March, after a robbery complaint.
• March 29: the fake raid takes the gold and cash in Caçari; the buyer reports the robbery to the police.
• August 21: the first phase arrests Ivan in Florianopolis and three other suspects in Roraima.
• August 25: a court orders Castilho's preventive detention.
• August 26: the second phase serves the warrants against Castilho and Araújo in Amazonas.

Castilho's defense, by lawyers Gabriel Mourão and Carlos Villa Real, told FolhaBV it received the arrest "with surprise" and said that on August 19 the judge overseeing the legality of the investigation, a role known in Brazil as juiz das garantias, had expressly found no evidence of the commissioner's involvement, rejecting at the time requests to search his home and lift his bank and tax secrecy. "John Allan Cunha Castilho vehemently denies any participation in the crimes attributed to him. He did not take part in the planning, did not take part in the execution and received no benefit", the statement said, noting he is a tenured civil servant with a clean record who was not heard before the arrest, which was ordered by a different judge. The lawyers stress that preventive detention is a precautionary measure and does not anticipate guilt. G1 said it is seeking contact with the lawyers of the other suspects.

Next, Castilho's defense said it will act within the case files to clarify the facts and challenge the preventive detention, while Draco's investigation into the other robberies attributed to the group continues. One of the eight suspects remained at large as of Wednesday evening.