RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police executed search and seizure warrants targeting a high-ranking senator and friend of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday as part of a fraud and graft probe that has ensnared several politicians ahead of October’s general election.Police are looking into suspicious payments to Sen. Jaques Wagner, the leader of Lula’s Workers’ Party in the Senate, as part of investigations into the shut down Banco Master and its disgraced former CEO, Daniel Vorcaro. Wagner is the first major Lula ally to be hit by the sprawling scandal that has already engulfed presidential hopeful Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, among others. The scandal is expected to loom large in the upcoming elections.In a statement that did not name suspects, police said they were executing 18 search and seizure warrants in the states of Bahia and Sao Paulo and the Federal District for facts that may constitute the crimes of passive corruption, active corruption and money laundering.
Court documents signed by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça on Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday - which cited the suspects - authorized the search.
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