| Last weekend, Brazilians living in the greater Sao | | | | and civilians that the security sector here has a long |
| Paulo metropolitan area witnessed one of the | | | | way to go before it has any significant control over |
| country's largest prison riots in the past five years, | | | | organized crime. These rebellions also highlight the |
| organized and orchestrated by Sao Paulo's largest | | | | superior communication networks operated by |
| criminal faction, the First Capital Command (PCC in | | | | Brazilian organized crime. Communication is |
| Portuguese).When Sao Paulo state authorities | | | | fundamental When Fernandinho Beira-Mar was |
| transferred some 756 PCC leaders, the PCC criminal | | | | transferred from his prison cell in Rio de Janeiro after |
| enterprise, led by Willians Herbas Camacho (a.k.a. | | | | he orchestrated a prison riot there in September |
| Marcola), implemented its plan to start riots in dozens | | | | 2002 to mask the assassination of rival gang leaders, |
| of prisons in Sao Paulo and around the country. They | | | | authorities found a number of luxury items including |
| took advantage of the unusually lax security | | | | silk pajamas. But what surprised them more was the |
| environment over the weekend when some 10,000 | | | | number of abandoned cell phones. Reports from Rio |
| prisoners were given a day pass to visit families on | | | | de Janeiro daily, O Globo, claim that Beira-Mar used |
| the outside for Mother's Day, and thousands more | | | | up to a dozen cell phones to communicate with |
| civilians entered prisons to visit inmates on the | | | | lieutenants and other subordinates in his black market |
| inside.As one prison after another fell under the | | | | network of guns and drugs shipments and sales.In a |
| control of rioting inmates, the hostage count | | | | similar fashion, leaders of the PCC use cell phones to |
| rocketed into the hundreds. Meanwhile, organized | | | | communicate with one another between prisons and |
| attacks on police stations around Sao Paulo kept | | | | between prisoners and gang members on the |
| security forces busy defending themselves. At the | | | | outside. Both the Civil Police and the Federal Police |
| same time, masked gunmen commandeered city | | | | operate listening posts, which enable security officials |
| buses, ordering them evacuated before burning them | | | | to piece together actionable intelligence on plans for |
| to the ground.The weekend's total included over 250 | | | | rebellions and other gang operations. However, the |
| separate attacks on police stations, stores, and other | | | | use of two-way radios has made that task much |
| establishments. There were 115 people killed, including | | | | more difficult.In both Rio and Sao Paulo, two-way |
| 32 policemen and prison guards and 71 gang | | | | radios are used by criminals to relay messages to |
| members. Another 49 people were injured. Some 215 | | | | other incarcerated gang members and members on |
| hostages were taken in 73 prison riots that occurred | | | | the outside. In some cases, one prisoner calls via cell |
| in prisons across Sao Paulo, Parana, Matto Grosso do | | | | a subordinate on the outside who uses a two-way |
| Sul, Brasilia, and Bahia, according to Brazilian daily Folha | | | | radio to transmit the message to a third individual |
| de Sao Paulo. Over 80 public transport buses were | | | | who then uses another cell phone to pass along the |
| burned and one metro station was attacked, leaving | | | | message to its recipient in another prison, reports O |
| over five million people without public transport. On 15 | | | | Globo. Each node on the communications chain may |
| May, as millions of people fled home in the early | | | | use any number of cell phones or two-way radios, |
| afternoon, Sao Paulo became a city of gridlock | | | | making tracking the signals very difficult.Attempts to |
| spanning 203 kilometers of roadways.Over the | | | | block cell phone signals in Rio and Sao Paulo have |
| weekend, as the violence raged on, Brazilian Justice | | | | been ineffective.In the middle of the Mother's Day |
| Minister Marcio Thomas Bastos offered the service | | | | weekend riots, requests to shut down cell phone |
| of 4,000 soldiers, part of a National Force trained to | | | | towers used by criminals to relay signals were |
| help contain the security problems in Brazilian states. | | | | presented to Brazil's telecommunications regulatory |
| But Sao Paulo Governor Claudio Lembo, filling in for | | | | body when Marco Antonio Desgualdo, the head of |
| presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin, refused to | | | | the Sao Paulo state Civil Police, met with this body, |
| accept federal help. Bastos made the trip from Brasilia | | | | called Anatel, on 15 May. The Folha de Sao Paulo |
| to Sao Paulo to again offer federal assistance during | | | | reported that after the meeting Desgualdo |
| a close-door meeting on Monday, 15 May. But again it | | | | announced that authorities would not be able to shut |
| was refused.By 16 May, as quickly as the violence | | | | down cell towers without the acquiescence of |
| had started, it ended, and most prisons were back in | | | | telecommunications companies.These same |
| the control of state authorities, and policemen were | | | | companies - Vivo, Tim, Telefonica, Embratel, and |
| no longer the target of random attacks. The Sao | | | | Nextel - complain that shutting down the towers |
| Paulo daily newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, | | | | would mean an unacceptable disruption of service for |
| reported on 16 May that the state government had | | | | their law-abiding clients. Nothing short of a court order |
| reached an agreement with the PCC. Government | | | | would shut down the towers, a legal instrument that |
| officials continue to deny that claim, but it is possible | | | | takes too long to obtain.In some prison systems, cell |
| such negotiations were a last-resort option for state | | | | phone signal blockers are used, but they are quickly |
| officials clearly caught off guard by a highly organized | | | | rendered obsolete by the rapid pace of technological |
| criminal network, one many believed had been | | | | advancement in cell phone systems.The battle |
| dismantled years ago. Brazilian organized crime The | | | | between Sao Paulo authorities and the cell phone |
| PCC began to take shape in 1993, when prisoners | | | | companies to shut down towers in the event of |
| incarcerated in Taubate state prison in Sao Paulo | | | | security needs began in February 2001, when PCC |
| organized themselves to fight against deplorable living | | | | members used cell phones to orchestrate |
| conditions and more rights within the prison system. | | | | simultaneous riots in 29 prisons across Sao Paulo. |
| Over the past 13 years, this organization has grown | | | | Security officials failed to win the battle then, too, |
| into one of the country's most powerful prison | | | | but no one knew that such decisions five years ago |
| criminal networks, controlling activity within dozens of | | | | would eventually facilitate the most violent uprising of |
| prisons in Sao Paulo and around the country, as well | | | | Brazilian organized crime in years. Corruption and |
| as important sales points and transport routes for | | | | politics Even as blocking cell signals and other |
| drugs and guns flowing into Brazil from source | | | | methods to impede communication between criminals |
| countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, and | | | | evolves into what may become a viable solution, |
| Suriname.The PCC became more active outside | | | | many believe that such time is wasted on treating a |
| prisons in 1999, when Rio's top criminal organization - | | | | problem that is not central to the real reason why |
| the Red Command (CV in Portuguese) - formed an | | | | the PCC was able to orchestrate such a widespread |
| alliance with PCC members who lived in Heliopolis, a | | | | reign of disorder and rebellion. Corruption and politics, |
| shantytown located in the southeastern zone of Sao | | | | two of the usual suspects behind systemic |
| Paulo, according to a Rio de Janeiro Federal Police | | | | dysfunction in democracies, are at the center of |
| officer who asked to remain anonymous. Through | | | | Brazil's security problems.Bribes paid to security |
| this alliance, the CV sought to shift some of its drug | | | | officials at all levels keep leaders of the PCC and the |
| trafficking activities from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo. | | | | CV well informed of official planning. When authorities |
| In Rio, CV leaders had been constantly harassed by | | | | planned to move over 700 of the PCC leaders to a |
| police who exacted an extortion tax for allowing | | | | more secure prison environment to avoid what they |
| favelas (shantytowns) to be used as drug sales | | | | learned was a planned Mother's Day rebellion, the |
| centers and contraband transshipment points. | | | | PCC reacted by launching its rebellion two days early, |
| Additionally, the PCC in 1999 was a large criminal | | | | disrupting the prisoner transport and a host of other |
| organization with more manpower than economic | | | | activities planned to prevent the rebellion.Low salaries |
| activity. Its alliance with the CV increased earnings | | | | exacerbate corruption because policemen and some |
| for the PCC in Sao Paulo, while opening a new pool | | | | lower-ranking members of the military are more likely |
| of man power for the CV to defend its turf from | | | | to sell weapons from poorly organized stock piles to |
| rival gangs in Rio de Janeiro.Together, the two gangs | | | | make ends meet. Over 70 per cent of the weapons |
| control the drug trade in Brazil's two largest cities. | | | | used by Brazilian organized crime were made in Brazil. |
| They operate gun smuggling routes out of Paraguay | | | | Many of them are sold to Paraguay where they |
| and purchase weapons from corrupt policemen and | | | | enter the black market before returning to Brazil. Yet |
| military soldiers in Sao Paulo and Rio. High-level | | | | a significant amount are sold to criminals directly from |
| members of these gangs, especially the CV, continue | | | | stockpiles of seized weapons.When budgets must be |
| to conduct a weapons-for-cocaine barter with | | | | prepared, politics dictate who gets what slice of the |
| members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces | | | | pie. From 2004 to 2005, the Brazilian federal |
| of Colombia (FARC) based in the Colombian | | | | government reduced resources for the country's |
| Amazon.As recently as 30 April, three Colombians | | | | Penitentiary Fund by 37 per cent. This fund oversees |
| opened fire on a Brazilian patrol on the Rio Negro, a | | | | the overall improvement and maintenance of Brazil's |
| branch of the Amazon river that begins in an area of | | | | prison system. Meanwhile, the government of Sao |
| the Colombian Amazon reportedly controlled by the | | | | Paulo state diverted from public security spending |
| FARC. Brazilian authorities claim that the rifles were | | | | some US$81.3 million in the last five years. It was a |
| stamped with the Brazilian military coat of arms. The | | | | decision in the reduction of security spending at the |
| men were followed to the Colombian city of San | | | | Sao Paulo state level that was likely made after the |
| Felipe, where their arms were confiscated. Brazilian | | | | 2001 prison riots in that state.Commenting on the |
| Federal Police investigators told ISN Security Watch | | | | event, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" |
| that they believe the arms were part of a cache of | | | | da Silva said it was a demonstration of the power of |
| weapons to be traded for cocaine that traffickers | | | | organized crime in Brazil. His comments underline the |
| would transport to Sao Paulo and Rio.Red Command | | | | fact that Brazilian organized crime is a force that has |
| leader Fernandinho Beira-Mar is considered to have | | | | grown to threaten Brazilian cities as well as the |
| been one of the first Brazilian criminals to trade | | | | nation. With links to organized crime in Paraguay and |
| weapons for cocaine with the FARC. He was | | | | Suriname, and a thriving barter system with |
| arrested by Colombian authorities in April 2001 and | | | | Colombia's FARC soldiers, the PCC and CV may soon |
| immediately extradited to Brazil. Yet the recent | | | | become internationally known as a criminal network |
| incident on the Brazilian-Colombian border in the | | | | that has grown too big for Brazil's security system to |
| Amazon indicates that five years later, this criminal | | | | handle.Sam Logan ( is an investigative journalist who |
| exchange program still continues to supply the CV | | | | has reported on security, energy, politics, economics, |
| and the PCC with pure, Colombian cocaine.Brazilian | | | | organized crime, terrorism, and black markets in Latin |
| organized crime is just as powerful within the prison | | | | America since 1999. He is currently completing his |
| system as it is on the outside. And as the battle | | | | work on Nice Guys Die First, a forthcoming |
| continues to dismantle these criminal networks, the | | | | non-fiction narrative about organized crime in Brazil. |
| occasional mega-rebellion reminds Brazilian authorities | | | | |