‘Milicianos’ shows a sad report about organized crime – 11/25/2023 – Elio Gaspari

It’s in the “Milicianos” bookstores owned by reporter Rafael Soares. It’s a great book and tells the sad story of the progress of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro. With a decade of work and 10,000 pages of researched documents, he exposes the seriousness of the problem.

The elite Military Police troop was made up of a team of assassins. Some migrated to militias and gunfighting, ending up in arms and drug trafficking. In a way, this was already known or intuited. Rafael Soares shows that what was known and intuited for years was also documented by the Public Ministry.

Gambling, militias and drugs protect themselves under a layer of complicity and embezzlement. The gunmen Ronnie Lessa, accused of having murdered councilwoman Marielle Franco, and Adriano da Nóbrega, manager of the Crime Office, were not outliers, but extensions of an irregular line.

In May 2015, when Rio was crowded with Pacification Police Units and the majestic Morro do Alemão cable car, the director general of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, rode the cable car and said: “I feel like I’m in a ski resort (…) Something only seen in the Alps”.

Rafael Soares shows what happened in Madame Lagarde’s Alps.

Years before, the figure of Sergeant Marcos Falcon had been celebrated, proudly raising a flag at the top of Alemão: “You cannot defy the State”.

In 1995, Falcon had mistakenly kidnapped and murdered a Marine. He later took over the militia in the Oswaldo Cruz neighborhood, demanding protection, clandestine connections and the sale of gas. Arrested in 2011, he was released months later. Expelled from the PM, he found himself acquitted, with the decision confirmed by the Court of Justice. He was reinstated to the troop and retired as a warrant officer.

Falcon dedicated himself to the Portela samba school, married the Beija-Flor flag bearer and wanted to run for a council seat. He was executed by the Crime Bureau before the election. Mayor Eduardo Paes went to his wake.

The Crime Office was managed by former PM captain Adriano da Nóbrega and operated at the Sabor da Floresta bakery, on Ilha do Governador. While he was in the Military Police, his troops were known as the “Evil Garrison”.

The then state deputy Flávio Bolsonaro appreciated him. He sponsored his name for a decoration and employed his wife and mother in his cabinet. Despite the solidarity of Jair Bolsonaro, who honored him by going to his jury, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Months later, the Court of Justice annulled the sentence. One of his sisters would say: “The animal game paid for his acquittal”.

This is the frightening aspect of the book “Milicianos”. It shows how deep and how far organized crime has gone. With the cards on the table, he can go deeper, and further, carried away by the wind of tolerance.

Recently, the country was shocked by the execution of two doctors in Barra da Tijuca.

Nothing new under the indigo sky. In 2007, a young couple was ambushed as they left a samba school rehearsal.

Zé Personal, a powerful bicheiro and owner of a stud farm, would tell a friend: “Damn, Lieutenant João and Captain Adriano messed up, they killed a couple in Grajaú-Jacarepaguá thinking it was Guaracy, they killed them by mistake.”

Guaracy and his wife were executed weeks later. A few years passed, the friend and Zé Personal were murdered. Adriano’s time came in 2020.

In another shocking episode, in October, a judge from Bahia used a Sunday shift to free drug trafficker Dadá, from Bonde do Maluco. Shortly afterwards, the doctor was removed by the National Council of Justice and is under investigation.

Nothing new. In 2017, a Rio judge, on another Sunday shift, released Batoré, former PM corporal Freitas, a gunman in Adriano’s gang.

Data collected by the Public Ministry reveals that militiamen made hurried car sales on those days. The money would be used to pay the lawyers. Removed by the CNJ, the magistrate regained his chair.

In 2015, Batoré, Falcon’s killer, had organized a van strike for the militiaman Guarabu. Years later, Batoré and Guarabu died in a shootout with the police.

Movingly, Rafael Soares dedicates his book to Laura Ramos de Azevedo, mother of Lucas, a young black man executed by police officers in December 2018.

Two days later, Jair Bolsonaro would assume the Presidency of the Republic, flirting with the idea of ​​legalizing resort casinos. (The idea also enchanted the Minister of Finance, Paulo Guedes.) His Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet, General Augusto Heleno, compared the lethality of weapons to that of automobiles.

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