São Paulo state prosecutors have charged four military police officers with taking part in a criminal organization that provided private security to executives of Transwolff, a bus company under investigation for alleged money laundering for the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal gang. The complaint, filed on Wednesday (26) with the Military Court, the tribunal that tries police officers in Brazil, requests the preventive detention of Lieutenant Colonel José Henrique Martins Flores, described as the administrator of the companies used to formalize the security services and give the payments a legal appearance, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
Also charged are Captain Alexandre Paulino Vieira, Sergeant Alexandre Aleixo Romano Cezário and retired Sergeant Nereu Aparecido Alves. The three have been in preventive custody since February 4, when the police internal affairs unit launched Operation Kratos, and prosecutors asked that their detention be maintained. The court must still accept the complaint before the four formally become defendants.
According to the complaint, the group formed a unit tasked with protecting Transwolff's then-owner, Luiz Carlos Efigênio Pacheco, known as Pandora, and Cícero de Oliveira, known as Té, as well as other executives, their relatives and the company's garages. Prosecutors argue that by hiring police officers, some of them members of Rota, São Paulo's elite police battalion, the company was also buying the institutional credibility of the uniform: "The reputational shielding was itself the product being contracted," the complaint states, according to Folha. The police unit allegedly operated alongside a business and financial structure that included Pandora, Té and Robson Flares Lopes Pontes.
The internal affairs investigation, detailed by Metrópoles, describes Flores as the financial backbone of the scheme through companies in the AM3 group registered in the names of relatives, including his mother and stepfather, who live more than 500 kilometers from the state capital. Records from a food delivery app allegedly confirmed the colonel's frequent presence at the addresses of these companies, which issued the invoices for the security services. According to the inquiry, payments continued at least until January this year, even after the operations targeting Transwolff.
Timeline of the case
The case began with Operation Fim da Linha (End of the Line), launched in April 2024 against Transwolff and another bus company, UPBus, on suspicion of laundering money for the PCC. In December of that year, the São Paulo city government opened proceedings to terminate both companies' contracts. On February 4, 2026, Operation Kratos arrested the three officers and seized R$ 1 million at one of their homes, serving 16 search warrants, according to G1. Investigators concluded the private security was provided between 2020 and 2024. Transwolff's defense denies any ties to organized crime and says it is challenging the accusations in court.
What the defenses say
Lawyers Mauro Ribas and Renato Soares, who represent Paulino Vieira, say the officer "never joined, took part in or provided services to any criminal organization" and that he ran private security services through a properly registered company. The defenses of sergeants Nereu and Romano said they will comment soon, and Flores's lawyer was contacted but had not responded by the time Folha published its story. The next step is the Military Court's review of the complaint: judges will decide whether to accept it and whether to grant the preventive detention request for Flores. No date has been set for the ruling.