Trafficking bunker exposes the closeness of NGOs to crime

Summary of this report:

• The discovery, by the Civil Police, of the “trafficking bunker” inside an NGO in Rio de Janeiro brings back to debate the strengthening of ties between some of these entities and drug trafficking.
• There is currently an offensive in the STF orchestrated by entities hostile to security bodies to progressively reduce police operations in communities in Rio de Janeiro, dominated by organized crime.
• For sources heard in the report, the repercussion of the case puts into question the excessive animosity of some NGOs in favor of weakening police operations and weakens their modes of action, especially in the Judiciary.
• Members of the Rio de Janeiro police point out that the direct (in the Judiciary) and indirect (in forming opinion) actions of these NGOs directly impacts public safety and favors the interests of organized crime.

The discovery, by the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, of a bunker built inside the headquarters of the NGO Multiplicação Social, which maintained articulation with politicians, artists and businessmen to enable its work in a community in the North Zone of the capital of Rio de Janeiro, brought back the debate on the complicity of some non-governmental organizations with drug trafficking.

In the police operation, carried out on Friday (19), 17 people linked to drug trafficking were arrested and 17 rifles, a .50 caliber weapon and a large amount of ammunition, grenades and drugs were seized. The seized weapons alone were valued at R$1 million by the Civil Police. In the bunker there was an automated door, activated by remote control, and two rooms to allow the criminals to remain in the place for extended periods.

In a press conference, agents involved in the operation stated that those responsible for the entity maintain links with local drug trafficking and addressed the links between NGOs in Rio de Janeiro and organized crime. “It is very important to highlight two points: first, for those who had doubts that some NGOs are directly linked to drug trafficking, today’s operation has just removed any doubts. The NGO carried out some activities typical of non-governmental organizations precisely to camouflage its true bias, which was to hide weapons from trafficking and hide wanted from Justice”, said delegate Marcos Amim, head of the Police Station for Repression of Narcotics (DRE).

The delegate also reinforced the importance of police operations to curb the advance of organized crime in the state. Since 2020, a series of NGOs have been leading an offensive in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), along with parties such as PSB, PT and PSOL, asking for a series of restrictions on the presence of the police in the communities of Rio de Janeiro.

And the investments have been successful. STF ministers have already given a positive signal to a series of demands from these entities. Among the various determinations imposed by the Court are the prohibition of operations in communities, except in “absolutely exceptional” cases, during the duration of the pandemic – which continues until today, even with the WHO having decreed the end of the international emergency for Covid-19. 19 in early May; communication to the Public Ministry before each raid; banning the use of helicopters in operations; among others.

Such as People’s Gazette showed, the impact of the emptying of the police presence in the communities is dramatic: since the restrictions came into force, three years ago, drug trafficking leaders in the state have found it easier to strengthen and expand their positions, build more barricades to shield their territories from the police entry, increase their war arsenals and even receive traffickers from other states, who perceive the Rio de Janeiro hills as safer places than their home states.

Even so, NGOs that act in the records of the so-called “ADPF das Favelas” (ADPF 635) as “friends of the court” – responsible for providing the basis for the judges’ decisions – continue to sign, with the PSB, requests for greater restrictions on the police presence.

For sources heard by the report, the discovery of the bunker calls into question the reasons for the excessive animosity of some non-governmental organizations in favor of weakening police operations and weakens their modes of action, especially in the Judiciary.

“This combative posture towards the Police and lenient with criminals makes us very intrigued. Are these individuals driven only by ideological issues or do they have some degree of involvement with organized crime? The result of this operation is important to start answering some of these questions”, he told People’s Gazette Deputy Fabrício Oliveira, holder of the Coordination of Special Resources of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro (CORE/PCERJ), after the operation in Parada de Lucas.

For police officers, the conduct of some NGOs favors the interests of organized crime

The staunch defense of some NGOs for the reduction of police operations in the communities has drawn the attention of security agencies precisely because the demand is of broad interest to criminal factions. Last year, former state deputy Alexandre Freitas (Podemos) sent a statement to the government of Rio de Janeiro reporting a possible conflict of interest in the work of one of the non-governmental organizations that work in the “ADPF das Favelas”.

According to the parliamentarian, this interference would occur because the activist Flávia Fróes would be acting directly in the process through the NGO founded by her, the Instituto Anjos da Liberdade (IAL). Flávia has been providing legal services for more than two decades to drug trafficking leaders from different criminal organizations, especially the Comando Vermelho – the main faction in Rio de Janeiro. Among the lines of action of his NGO in the Judiciary are attempts to reverse stricter treatment measures in prisons, especially in federal detentions, aimed at faction leaders.

For the deputy, her and the Anjos da Liberdade Institute’s actions in ADPF 635 may cause a conflict of interest, since the lawyer has clients and former clients who have a clear interest in reducing operations in the communities. In the case file, the NGO has manifested itself in the sense of restricting police incursions in these places as much as possible.

In the report, sources from the Military and Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro point out that although there are several non-governmental entities operating in the state with positive action, a minority of organizations with a strong ideological agenda and great visibility and influence end up, directly or indirectly, causing losses public safety and favoring the interests of organized crime.

For delegate Fabrício Oliveira, from CORE, the intensity of these entities’ offensive against the security forces has increased in recent years, which directly harms police activity. “In recent years, we have noticed increasingly severe attacks by some NGOs against police forces in Rio de Janeiro. The constant and often unjustified criticism brings a narrative that points to the Police and operations as the main problems related to violence, leaving in the background or completely ignoring the activities of violent criminal organizations that promote wars for territories and practice barbaric crimes”, he says. .

On the other hand, Colonel Mário Sérgio de Brito Duarte, former commander of the Battalion of Special Police Operations (BOPE) of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, highlights the impacts of restrictions on security forces imposed by the STF at the request of political parties and NGOs . “The consequences are very serious. When the legal weapons of the State cannot be present in the hands of its agents, in places where violators of the order carry them to control entire neighborhoods, this means a fragmentation of the country’s territorial sovereignty”, he says.

“Domestically, we are losing territory to parallel power structures capable of producing a state of public insecurity similar to Low Intensity Armed Conflicts [combates com estética e táticas de guerra e equipamento bélico, com confrontos que duram horas ou dias e levam pânico à população]. The tracer ammunition that cuts through the skies of Rio de Janeiro and the sounds of the grenades are the most evident aesthetic of this conflict”, he declares.

NGO Multiplicação Social is led by a man who calls himself a “former drug dealer”

The headquarters of the NGO Multiplicação Social, where the drug trafficking bunker was discovered, is located in the Parada de Lucas neighborhood, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The entity was formally founded in July 2021 and is directed by José Cláudio Fontoura Piúma, known as “Gaúcho”.

Piúma is a former head of drug trafficking in Complexo do Alemão and currently calls himself an “ex-trafficker”, speaker and “conflict mediator”. With a long criminal record and having already spent more than two decades in prison, in recent years he has published a series of videos on social networks to talk about the organization he manages and about his political and ideological positions, often criticizing security agents who , according to him, would have the mission of “killing blacks and the poor”.

Cláudio Piúma in a publication on his profile on social networks, in November 2022 (Reproduction)

Enthusiastic about curbing police operations in the state’s communities, Piúma worked as project manager for the NGO Afroreggae for five years and usually says that his mission is to take young people out of the world of crime through his social project.

In 2015, when he had his open prison system reverted to semi-open for having violated house arrest determinations more than 20 times in just one month, the judge who issued the decision named him a “highly dangerous prisoner” and “leader of criminal faction. In 2021, when he was on parole, he was again arrested red-handed along with accomplices while preparing to rob a house.

The NGO presided over by “Gaúcho” is very articulated with the public power and with artists and companies. As a result, the boy has appeared on television programs and given interviews to press vehicles on topics such as the prison system and police violence.

The symbol of the NGO Multiplicação Social is a Brazilian flag with a rifle being broken in half, in allusion to disarmament. An avid supporter of anti-gun policies in favor of a “culture of peace”, Piúma keeps photos of himself carrying rifles on his social media profiles.

President of the NGO says he did not know about the existence of a bunker: “it is sad that these young people are arrested”

After the police operation that uncovered the drug trafficking bunker, the president of the NGO Multiplicação Social published a video in which he stated that he was unaware of the construction being carried out on the entity’s land, nor of the presence of traffickers in the area. “The arrest of these young people is sad, because they are young people who are in agony”, said Piúma in references to the criminals trapped inside the bunker.

“Where these young people were caught is a place where there is no way that anyone would know anything there. That’s where they keep things that are no longer good, which is garbage. I’m making it very clear that we don’t have access, that we didn’t know anything about that there, we have no involvement in that. The police station itself can say that, because if they had it, they would know that we would have it”.

It is worth mentioning that the delegates stated exactly the opposite. “It was a large-scale work. Impossible to do without there being nuance of those responsible for this front NGO. he is part of drug trafficking. He is still a fundamental part of the criminal organization,” said the DRE delegate after the operation.