“I do not know whether any case of violation of judicial secrecy was brought, if indeed there was one,” explains the judge.

The national director of the Judicial Police, Luis Neves, said this Monday in statements to journalists that “the media did not know in advance about the operation and did not follow the searches” into corruption in Madeira.

Luis Neves guaranteed that the joint venture would travel alone, without representatives of the prosecutor’s office and journalists. “The transport of the investigators was prepared several days before its completion. In conditions of complete secrecy, the judicial police do not and have never checked information leaks,” he assured.

The National Director of the SP explained that “140 inspectors and 10 scientific police specialists took part in the operation, and not 300 inspectors as reported by the media” and that “an operation of this scale requires a lot of time, since it is necessary to collect a lot of information about dozens of locations and daily routines” .

Luis Neves also stated that the operation was planned for the end of September and that 107 search warrants were issued in Madeira and 25 on the continent.

When asked whether any case of violation of judicial secrecy had been opened, Luis Neves replied that he did not know. “I am not aware of any proceedings, if any, that have been filed for breach of judicial secrecy,” he said.

The National Director of Judicial Police said he decided to speak out at this time because the fitness of the police was being questioned. “You couldn’t mistakenly say there were 300 if there weren’t, we are the ones who know when, how and how many.”

According to Luis Neves, the operation was 100% effective and he admits that this was the first time he came into contact with the Air Force without even being asked what he was going to do.

“We cannot restrain ourselves and be afraid to do our work,” he assured.