Five people were charged by the Public Ministry of Ceará (MPCE), this Tuesday (20), for involvement in the case of a plantation with 290 thousand marijuana plants discovered in June, in Acopiara, in the interior of Ceará.
g1 had access to the complaint. Those reported are:
João Holanda Neto: de facto owner and indirect possessor of the property;
Cristiano Rodrigues de Lima: formal tenant and direct manager of the crop;
Francisco Augusto Alves da Silva: buyer and transporter of inputs;
Manoel Clenio Mendonça Leal Filho: responsible for orders, payments and collection of inputs;
Geraldo Dário Soares: specifier, advisor and financier of inputs.
According to the complaint, the five are accused of drug trafficking, marijuana cultivation and association for trafficking. João Holanda Neto and Cristiano Rodrigues de Lima must also respond for allowing the use of a property for activities related to trafficking.
g1 sought the defense of João Holanda Neto, who informed that he will not comment on the case. The defenses of the other defendants were not located.
The Public Ministry also asked the Court to maintain the preventive detentions of four of the five accused: Cristiano Rodrigues de Lima, Francisco Augusto Alves da Silva, Manoel Clênio Mendonça Leal Filho and Geraldo Dário Soares.
The property had a drip irrigation system, support tents and even machinery imported from Spain to process the drug.
According to the complaint, the group was organized into two areas of activity:
Field Nucleus: composed of João Holanda Neto, appointed as the de facto owner of the farm, and Cristiano Rodrigues de Lima, formal tenant who managed the day-to-day operations of the farm and local workers.
Supply Center: formed by Pernambuco lawyer Geraldo Dário Soares, Francisco Augusto Alves da Silva and Manoel Clenio Mendonça Leal Filho, responsible for the specification, purchase, removal and transportation of irrigation, fertilization and crop defense inputs.
Forensic Analysis and satellite images confirmed the deforestation of around 28 thousand m² of native vegetation at the end of 2025 to make way for the plantation, estimated at 23 thousand trees remaining during the operation.
Understand the case
The Civil Police found a plantation with around 290,000 marijuana plants in Acopiara, in the interior of Ceará. The discovery was made during an operation by security forces in the municipality on June 25, 2026.
The seizure was described as one of the largest ever carried out in the state of Ceará. The Civil Police even released a video of the marijuana plantation being felled by tractors and incinerated on site.
According to the police, agents identified approximately 160,000 planted marijuana plants and another 130,000 already harvested, totaling around 290,000 plants.
At the time, the family of João Holanda Neto, owner of the land, denied involvement in the criminal scheme. According to Fabrício Holanda, nephew of the accused, João Holanda rented the land to another person after being diagnosed with cancer and was away from activities.
The Civil Police reported on July 3, 2026 that they had completed the destruction and incineration of the marijuana plants. According to the corporation, the operation was completed the day before and used a Fire Department technique that consists of digging trenches, burning the plants with gasoline and diesel oil and then covering the material with earth to prevent the fire from spreading.
The operation generated controversy after federal deputy André Fernandes published a video showing plant remains buried on the property and questioned whether the drugs had actually been incinerated. The Civil Police stated that the material found by the parliamentarian was made up of remains from the plantation and other destroyed plants. The state government also informed that it would investigate possible irregularities in the handling and storage of the seized material.
