A São Paulo appeals court has kept Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola, in pretrial detention in a money-laundering case linked to the First Capital Command (PCC), the prison-based criminal faction that Brazilian authorities say he leads.
The decision rejected an initial request for release filed by his defense, according to single-source reporting from Revista Oeste. The case is tied to Operation Vernix, an investigation into an alleged laundering scheme attributed to the PCC.
The Court Decision
The ruling came from the São Paulo State Court of Justice, known in Brazil as the Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo. A judge from its 16th Criminal Law Chamber concluded that the case did not contain grounds for immediately revoking the preventive detention order.
Preventive detention in Brazil is a pretrial measure used when a court finds legal grounds to keep a defendant jailed before a final judgment. The habeas corpus request will still move to a full merits review by the chamber, according to the report.
Operation Vernix also targeted lawyer Deolane Bezerra, Revista Oeste reported. The source says she was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, but it does not detail the allegations against her in the material provided.
Defense Arguments
Marcola's lawyer, Bruno Ferullo Rita, said in a statement that the latest ruling was preliminary and that the defense arguments still need to be examined by the appellate judges.
The defense argues that the new preventive detention order is unnecessary because Marcola is already serving time at the Federal Penitentiary in Brasília, a maximum-security facility. His brother, Alejandro Juvenal Herbas Camacho Júnior, is also being held in the federal maximum-security prison system, according to the report.
The lawyers say both men face constant monitoring and communication restrictions. In their view, those conditions already neutralize the risks that a new detention warrant would seek to address, making the fresh order practically redundant.
Alleged Laundering Structure
The court decision cited Lopes Lemos Transportes Ltda., a company investigators describe as central to the alleged laundering scheme. The ruling said another proceeding had already recognized the company as a business used for money laundering, according to Revista Oeste.
Judge Renata William Rached Catelli also stated that previous convictions do not prevent a court from issuing a new preventive detention order. The report says she treated the measures as legally distinct, meaning an existing sentence and a new pretrial detention order can rest on different grounds.
The ruling does not end the dispute. It keeps Marcola in custody while the habeas corpus petition proceeds to a broader review by the appellate panel.