By Maira Magro
Police in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte claim that a convicted drug trafficker ordered the killing of radio journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros from prison, El Diário de Natal reports.
The reporter, known as F. Gomes, was shot to death Oct. 18 in the city of Caicó. The man who allegedly ordered the killing is Valdir Souza do Nascimento.
One day after the crime, the police arrested João Francisco dos Santos, who allegedly confessed to killing F. Gomes. According to investigators, Santos was hired as a gunmen to fulfill a debt owned to Nascimento, Tribuna do Norte explains. “F. Gomes had been inconveniencing the [drug] trafficking with his reports,” officer Ronaldo Gomes said, quoted by Diário de Natal.
F. Gomes was one of the most renowned investigative journalists in his region. One of his last stories had a nationwide impact when it revealed an alleged scheme where politicians were buying votes in the Oct. 3 elections with crack cocaine.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
