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. 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 first voice on the taoe is that of Adriano Salan, the Minister of Administration in Coari, a wealthy town of 77, in the Brazilian Amazon, miles west of Manaus.
His 'chief' and the gang's leader is Adail Pinheiro - the town's mayor. Caori mayor Adail Pinheiro is arrested for the first time in He spent just 63 days behind bars despite shocking allegations of paedophilia spanning decades. Pinheiro 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 for his selection. 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.
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.
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. Disturbingly, some of that money is believed to have come from royalties paid by oil and gas companies, including British oil giant BP.
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.
