This link led prosecutors to uncover a vast and extraordinarily intricate web of corruption. But police soon realised they were on to something bigger when they discovered that the doleiros were working on behalf of an executive at Petrobras, Paulo Roberto Costa, the director of refining and supply. Launched in March 2014, the operation had initially focused on agents known as doleiros (black market money dealers), who used small businesses, such as petrol stations and car washes, to launder the profits of crime. It would also expose a culture of systemic graft in Brazilian politics, and provoke a backlash from the establishment fierce enough to bring down one government and leave another on the brink of collapse.
The case would go on to discover illegal payments of more than $5bn to company executives and political parties, put billionaires in jail, drag a president into court and cause irreparable damage to the finances and reputations of some of the world’s biggest companies.
At first, the press described it as the biggest corruption scandal in the history of Brazil then, as other countries and foreign firms were dragged in, the world. The investigation that led to Cerveró’s arrest – codenamed Lava Jato (Car Wash) – was about to uncover an unprecedented web of corruption. There was little reason to think this case would be any different. Decades on the force had taught him how quickly the rich and powerful could wriggle off the hook. Ishii, too, had few illusions that his suspect would be locked up for long.
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