Brazilian police find suitcases of cash linked to ex-politician

Sao Paulo, Brazil | AFP |  Brazilian police on Tuesday found suitcases overflowing with millions of dollars worth of cash in an apartment believed to be linked to a former government minister accused of corruption.

There was so much money in the apartment in the northeastern city of Salvador, which was believed to be used by former minister Geddel Vieira Lima, that police took hours even to make a first estimate.

Late in the evening, with seven cash counting machines in action, police said that “more than 33 million reais ($10.6 million) have been counted.”

But their work wasn’t over.

“Given the amount still to go, the prediction is that the counting will take all night,” federal police said in a statement.

The pile of cash stored in suitcases and cardboard packing boxes was discovered during an investigation into fraud at state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal, where Lima worked under president Dilma Rousseff.

Until recently he served as a powerful ministerial-level aide to current President Michel Temer, before being toppled in one of the many corruption scandals shaking the center-right government. In July, he was arrested and is under house arrest.