Four Brazilian employees of the Honorary Consulate of Mozambique, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, are accused of taking part in a scheme to avoid the extradition to Brazil of Brazilian drug trafficker Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos, better known as Fuminho.

They are Marcos Roberto de Almeida (Tuta); Willian Barile Agati - the architect of the plan; Marinel Bozhanaj; and Regis Agati Carneiro, all linked to the First Command of the Capital (PCC) - the largest criminal faction in Brazil.

The Brazilian police learned that at the Consulate's former headquarters in Belo Horizonte "there was a scheme to sell Mozambique Consulate cards to criminals". The promise was that the document would guarantee the buyer some kind of immunity and protection from inspections.

According to the Brazilian media, recent investigations have revealed that the PCC put 1.5 million dollars on the table for the then consul, Deusdete Januário Goncalves, to help free Fuminho and thus escape possible extradition to Brazil.

The ransom plan was recently uncovered by the Brazilian Federal Police when they investigated a gang linked to the PCC that was setting up an operational base for cocaine trafficking in Africa.

The plan didn't work, as Fuminho was arrested on April 13 in a luxury hotel in Maputo. Curiously, according to the Brazilian media, he was held in a prison in Mozambique. How he ended up in the hotel remains a mystery.

The investigations showed that Agati had the help of his partner Edmilson de Menezes, 51, known as Grilo - brother-in-law of Roberto Soriano, 50, known as Tiriça, the former number 2 of the PCC who was excluded from the faction last year after fighting with Marcola - to plan Fuminho's rescue.

Agati and Grilo's idea - says the PF investigation - was to corrupt Maputo police officers in order to get Fuminho released. He would be put on a plane and taken to the Balkans, in southeastern Europe, where he would have the support of foreign mafiosi linked to the PCC.