“PJ management hid the name of the operation in Madeira”. This is what Sábado magazine titled an article in its edition of this Thursday, February 1, 2024, regarding the operation carried out eight days ago and which resulted in the arrest of three people, Pedro Calado, Avelino Farinha and Custódio Correia, in addition to the constitution as a defendant of the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, generating a crisis like never before seen in the Region.
“For months, Operation Zarco was named after the navigator that Infante D. Henrique chose to send to the island, but the PJ management decided to hide him so as not to offend sensibilities”, writes journalist António José Vilela at the beginning of the article. “In the four cases there are suspicions about hundreds of millions of euros of public money. Detainees should begin to be heard today”, he adds, although they already started to be heard yesterday, after a week of waiting.
And he also remembers that Gonçalves Zarco, the one chosen “to organize the settlement and rule the island of Madeira”, after “six centuries” is with “Operation Zarco”, as the investigation mounted by the Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Department Criminal Investigation Center (DCIAP), moved forward to bring order to Madeira.”
Last Wednesday, the national director of the PJ, Luís Neves, assured everyone to hear that it was his decision not to name the operation launched on January 24th.