Seven leaders of the Red Command, one of Brazil’s most powerful organized crime groups, were transferred this Wednesday from Rio de Janeiro’s state prison to the maximum-security Catandubas federal prison in the city of the same name in Paraná state. The transfer was carried out on a police plane at the request of the Rio state government as part of a strategy to weaken communication between gang leaders and members. The seven men were charged on Wednesday with ordering roadblocks across Rio de Janeiro to sow chaos in response to a police operation that left 121 people dead, the most in Brazil that day.
These seven prisoners are serving sentences for crimes such as drug trafficking, murder, and organizing a fugitive, and their combined sentences total more than 500 years.
The seven middle leaders of CV were transferred in a convoy from Rio’s Bangu prison to Rio International Airport under heavy police escort. Aerial photos show them on the runway boarding the plane. Their hair is shaved, their hands are handcuffed to their waists, and they are wearing white T-shirts and blue pants. The state government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized Rio’s city enforcement for making the transfer public before it was completed, which the former claims could have led to the rescue attempt.
Initially, they were taken to Catanduba prison, the very same place where Fernandinho Beira-Mar, considered the head of the CV, is serving a 20-year sentence. According to Globo Group G1, these seven inmates will be transferred from Catanduba to Brasilia, as well as other federal prisons in Rio Grande do Norte, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondônia.
Following the bloody police operation, Congress is accelerating its deliberations on a bill to combat organized crime. The author of the bill is Guilherme Delight, known as Captain Delight, a former military police officer in the assault forces who led the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat at the beginning of the mission, which significantly increased the lethality of São Paulo’s security forces. Negotiations with the government to implement this rule resulted in the government waiving the declaration of Red Command, First Capital Command, and other organized crime groups as terrorist organizations, in line with U.S. policy.
The seven transferred CV inmates were housed in a prison in Rio, the city’s most powerful square and the city where the group was born in the late 1970s. Twenty years ago, Brazil built a network of maximum-security federal prisons to house the country’s most dangerous (and powerful) prisoners, given that organized crime factions control many of the state prisons spread across the country. A prison system expert recently defined Brazil’s prisons as, ironically, a public-private partnership. Until the door opens, the state will rule. Control of Intramuros is a matter for armed groups.
The Red Army Command, which has about 30,000 personnel, has expanded in recent years to cover almost all of Brazil. This route dominates the so-called Solimões route, which transports drugs from Colombia or Peru along the Amazon River to the Atlantic coast for domestic consumption or export to Europe.
The police operation, which culminated in a bloody ambush in the woods between the Rio favelas of Alemán and Peña at the end of September, was aimed at halting the expansion of the Vermelho special forces and arresting its top street leader Edgar Alves Andrade, but investigators were unable to locate him. While the operation was still not over, the Red Army command activated the people, who immediately blocked off the city’s roads and boulevards with barricaded buses and cars and set them on fire. Only the southern area, popular with tourists, where the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema are located, was quiet. According to authorities, the deportees’ orders caused chaos throughout the city, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people having severe difficulties returning to their homes.
Officials say at least 80 of those killed in police operations had significant police records. The other four were police officers. The Rio Public Ministry released a report on the autopsy. He highlighted that two of the bodies had unusual injuries. One was shot at close range. Another person reports being decapitated. or globe. It also noted that all of the bodies were male and had gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen, and back. The Ministry of Public Security said many of the dead were wearing camouflage clothing, bulletproof vests, boots and gloves.
Meanwhile, civilian police revealed that of the 128 elite force agents sent to the operation, only 57 had operational uniform cameras. Authorities claim there are technical issues.
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