They are going to the federal sphere.. which is much more clean to deal with.. We got problems(eg. corruption) here in Brazil specially with regions with low development index, like the ones on the amazon region..

Population here in Brazil use to have a good trust relationship with Federal Police.. because of the things they´ve being doing.. with investigations that are even encarcerating some high profile politicians.. fighting drug cartels, etc..

The problem here is that the law is not as harsh as the US for instance.. and for things like this im sure it should be.. to give this criminals a good example of what can happen to them, no matter how rich they get with the scheme

"if the place is as corrupt as the article says" It is.

And also even if they are convicted they probably will not stay in prison for long. Assuming the way those things happen now a days there.

Looks like the incumbent president is trying to get environmentalist votes. Do you think they might be made examples of and handed harsher sentences, just to make her look good?

Edit: I guess I'm not good at inferring gender of names :p

Make HER look good. (Dilma Rousseff is the incumbent President of Brazil. Her main opponent, Marina Silva, is also a woman.)