Brazilian police arrest suspects linked to ruling party for bribery

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian police arrested two financial operators linked to the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) on Saturday, who are suspected of paying large amount of bribes to politicians and executives of the national oil company, Petrobras.

In a statement, the police said the two men, Jorge Luz and his son Bruno, were arrested once they landed in Brasilia after being detained by migration agents in the US on Friday. The two men were on an Interpol watch list.

The two men will be taken to Curitiba, the capital of the southern state of Parana, where the investigations into the gigantic Petrobras corruption ring are being led from.

According to Brazil's prosecutor-general, the father and son paid close to 40 million US dollars in bribes to politicians and executives of Petrobras.

They will be charged for the crimes of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

A number of former Petrobras executives have confessed that Jorge Luz was the intermediary for bribes paid until late 2016 to Renan Calheiros from PMDB, the current President of the Senate of Brazil and a close ally of President Michel Temer.