Officers caught loading police automotive with beer investigated for happening a ‘bribery tour’
Police have opened a bribery investigation after cops were busted loading up their patrol car with beer.
The investigation also follows the discovery of bent officers taking part of a “bribery tour” of Rio di Janeiro.
Brazil’s Military Police Internal Affairs Office are looking into footage taken on July 6 which shows two police officers paying a visit to a drinks warehouse on Rue do Russel in the capital city, reports Globo.
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One of the cops can be seen remaining outside the warehouse on watch while an employee loads goods into the car. The other officer remains in the driver’s seat. It’s unclear from the footage whether or not the officers paid for the products. The officers in question belong to Rio di Janeiro’s 2BPM battalion.
(Image: g1.globo)
After the footage came to the military police’s attention, a spokesperson for the organisation said an investigation had been opened to “understand whether there was any crime, corruption or breach of order in the conduct of the agents”.
They continued: “The command of the corporation emphasises that it does not condone or tolerate any deviations in conduct, commission of crimes or abuse of authority practiced by its members, severely punishing those involved when the facts are confirmed.”
The investigation follows the arrest of 21 military police officers from the 20 BPM battalion for taking part in a “bribery tour”, Globo also reports.
(Image: g1.globo)
Following a separate investigation, it was discovered that crooked cops would do the rounds every Friday, collecting money beer and even fruit, from more than 50 establishments across the city, including scrapyards, recycling centres, construction stores, gas distributors as well warehouses and a fruit and veg store.
It’s reported that these officers would damage or manipulate body cameras so that collected bribes would go unrecorded.
A statement from the military police said: “The Military Police Department began monitoring agents and was able to verify not only that several units from the aforementioned battalion [20th BPM] were committing the crime, collecting valuables from the establishment, but, in fact, that they were repeating the same behaviour in several other businesses of different natures.”
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