Isabel Braga
Guarus, in plain English
It was not a brand-name hotel. It was a house at Rua Ary Ribeiro Vaz, 92, Custodópolis, Guarus — four rooms in a row, a chain on the door, a padlock on the window, a gun at the entrance. From May 2008 to May 2009, girls aged 8 to 17 were taken from there by car to motels and hotels in Campos. The Public Prosecutor said, at a 2015 hearing, that some were forced into as many as 30 commercial encounters a day and made to take cocaine, crack, hashish, ecstasy and marijuana. The press named the case “Meninas de Guarus.” The criminal file at the 3rd Court of Campos dos Goytacazes is number 0008528-30.2010.8.19.0014. This summary does not describe the acts.
The prosecution charged twenty people. After seven years and seventeen judges who declared themselves unable to hear the case, the eighteenth — Judge Daniela Barbosa Assumpção de Souza, 3rd Criminal Court — sentenced fourteen defendants on 8 June 2016 (case 0008528-30.2010.8.19.0014). Six were acquitted. Twelve were arrested the next morning.
Sentences ran from a year and a half to 31 years and one month. Among those convicted: two former city councillors (25 years and 8 months each); a military police officer (31 years); a businessman tied to the motels (14 years); and Nelson Nahim Matheus de Oliveira, former interim mayor of Campos and brother of Anthony Garotinho, 12 years.
Then the system opened the other door. In October 2016 Nahim left jail on habeas corpus. In November two others left the same way. In January 2017, still convicted at first instance, Nahim was sworn in as a federal deputy, substituting Índio da Costa. In January 2026 he was still giving interviews about local politics.
In August 2024 the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice upheld the convictions and ordered passports surrendered. Execution of sentence at second instance does not run while the case sits at the Superior Court of Justice. The public tally that month: one man in prison (the 31-year sentence), one dead (2020), eleven free.
Nelson Nahim Matheus de Oliveira, former president of the Campos city council, former interim mayor when his sister-in-law Rosinha was removed in 2010, was sentenced to 12 years for rape of a vulnerable person, coercion in the course of proceedings and article 244-A of the Child and Adolescent Statute. The indictment links him to a 15-year-old adolescent, named in the case file by a nickname. In January 2017, already convicted, he took a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in place of Índio da Costa. In 2018 he nearly returned in Cristiane Brasil’s vacancy. In January 2026 he was still speaking to the local press about Campos politics. The conviction did not remove him from the city. For a time, it removed 17 judges.
Seventeen judges stepped aside. One sentenced
The Public Prosecutor and the judge who closed first instance recorded the same number: 17 magistrates declared themselves suspect or impeded before the case had a sentence. Daniela Barbosa Assumpção de Souza, sitting in the 3rd Criminal Court, wrote in the decision of 8 June 2016 that the case only then reached a first-instance outcome “after 17, unbelievable 17 judges, declared themselves suspect for the trial of this infamous cause.” Seven years of instruction. Twenty defendants charged by Gaeco. Fourteen convicted. Six acquitted. Twelve arrested the next morning. Two fugitives who surrendered within days. The sentence did not close the case. It opened the habeas-corpus season.
The sentences of 8 June 2016
Leílson Rocha da Silva, known as “Alex”: 31 years and 1 month — false imprisonment, armed criminal association, ruffianism, rape of a vulnerable person, sexual exploitation.
Ronaldo de Souza Santos, military police officer: 31 years and 1 month — the same offences, plus drug trafficking.
Thiago Machado Calil, former councillor: 25 years and 8 months — imprisonment of 14 victims, armed association, ruffianism, rape, Child and Adolescent Statute.
Fabrício Trindade Calil, former councillor: 25 years and 8 months.
Renato Pinheiro Duarte, businessman identified as owner of motels used for the meetings: 14 years.
Nelson Nahim: 12 years.
Fábio Lopes da Cruz, Robson Silva de Barros Costa, Dovany Salvador Lopes da Silva and Gustavo Ribeiro Poubaix Monteiro: 8 years each.
Marcos Alexandre dos Santos Ferreira, former councillor: 7 years.
Cléber Rocha da Silva: 6 years and 6 months.
Jayme César de Siqueira: 6 years.
Sérgio Crespo Gimenes Júnior: 1 year and 6 months.
What happened to them
October 2016: Nahim leaves the Pedrolino Werling de Oliveira public jail, in Rio, on habeas corpus. November 2016: Gustavo Poubaix and Renato Pinheiro also leave on HC — the same relief the court had refused in June. January 2017: Garotinho’s brother is sworn in as a substitute federal deputy. The first-instance conviction was alive. So was the seat.
August 2024: the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice hears the appeal, upholds the convictions and orders the defendants to surrender their passports within five days. The judgment runs under secrecy of justice. Of the 14 sentences of 2016, the public tally that month was this: one in prison — Leílson Rocha da Silva, the man with 31 years; one dead, in 2020; eleven at liberty, waiting on the Superior Court of Justice. Execution of sentence at second instance does not run. Whoever has 25 years on paper and 8 in the regime of fact is not “innocent.” They are in the interval the system reserves for whoever appeals.
There is, in coverage up to September 2026, no updated prison list by name beyond that 2024 cut. What there is is the opposite of what the sentence promised: the political core did not disappear. Nahim gave an interview in Campos in January 2026. Anthony Garotinho, in a 2017 note, said he had been distant from his brother for six years and without a political relationship. Wladimir Garotinho, Anthony’s son and mayor of Campos until April 2026, is not a defendant in this case — that is another case, Chequinho. Mixing the two is an error. Separating them also does not clean Guarus.
What the case file said the house was
The indictment describes an armed watch, a chain, a padlock, drugs used to break resistance, and transport to the client. It is not a metaphor of “hotel.” It is the address in Guarus plus the motel network. The victim who fled and sought the police and the Guardianship Council opened the inquiry. Fifteen girls, at a minimum, according to the prosecutor at the time of sentence. O Globo, in 2016, called it one of the most brutal cases of child sexual exploitation in the North Fluminense. Folha1 and Campos 24 Horas, in 2024, recorded that the state court upheld everything and that the STJ can still be moved. Between one date and the other, eight years of appeal and one federal legislature passed.
What this is not
It is not proof that the 17 judges were bought. It is proof that 17 judges did not want the case. It is not proof that Nahim served the 12 years. It is proof that the Chamber received him convicted. It is not the Arroio Grande case and not the Datasus map. It is the Campos courthouse refusing its own case until the 18th judge signed. And it is the house, the smallholding, the motel — that the city knows by the name of the neighbourhood.
References
1. Case 0008528-30.2010.8.19.0014. 3rd Criminal Court of Campos dos Goytacazes. Sentence 8 June 2016, Judge Daniela Barbosa Assumpção de Souza.
2. O Globo, 9 June 2016. Antônio Werneck. Fourteen convicted; 17 judges; Nahim 12 years.
3. G1 Norte Fluminense, 9 June 2016. Police arrest 12 in the Meninas de Guarus case. Full sentence list.
4. G1 Norte Fluminense, 20 Aug. 2015. Prosecutor statement on the scale of exploitation (not reproduced here).
5. G1 Norte Fluminense, 27 Oct. 2016. Nahim released on habeas corpus.
6. G1 Norte Fluminense, 15 Nov. 2016. Gustavo Poubaix and Renato Pinheiro released.
7. G1, 5 Jan. 2017. Convicted man, Garotinho’s brother, sworn in as deputy. Substitute for Índio da Costa.
8. Valor Econômico / Folhapress, 10 June 2016. Garotinho’s brother sentenced for sexual exploitation of minors.
9. Folha1, 22 Aug. 2024. Court upholds convictions and orders passports surrendered.
10. Tribuna NF, 22 Aug. 2024. TJ-RJ judgment.
11. Campos 24 Horas, 22 Aug. 2024. Convictions confirmed.
12. Folha1 / Suzy Monteiro, 9 June 2016. Gaeco operation.
13. Ururau, 9 June 2016. Nominative list of sentences.
14. Campos 24 Horas, 19 Jan. 2026. Nelson Nahim speaks to local press.
15. TSE / public biography. Nelson Nahim Matheus de Oliveira. 2014 substitute; sworn 2017.
16. Note by Anthony Garotinho, Jan. 2017, reproduced by G1.
17. Penal Code arts. 217-A, 148, 230, 288, 344. Child and Adolescent Statute art. 244-A.
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