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Cash, emeralds found in Brazil faith healer’s home

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FILE -In this Feb. 23, 2012 file photo, self-styled spiritual healer Joao Teixeira de Faria uses scissors to perform a spiritual surgery on Rosangela Maria Benedeti\'s nose at the "Casa de Dom Inacio de Loyola" in Abadiania, Brazil. Police in Brazil say a special task force will investigate accusations by 10 women made on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, that they were sexually abused by Faria at his clinic in the central-western state of Goias. Faria has denied the accusations. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s state police say they have found a suitcase full of cash and emeralds hidden in the home of a faith healer accused of sexual abuse by hundreds of women.

The suitcase was discovered at the home of Joao Teixeira de Faria on Friday in a basement accessed by a trap door in a closet. Police in the central state of Goias said they also found about $300,000 worth of Brazilian reals. They had yet to appraise the emeralds.

De Faria worked for several decades in rural Brazil as a healer who claimed he could cure diseases.

TV channel Globo aired accounts on Dec. 7 from several alleged victims who said they had been sexually abused for years.

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