(ANSA-AFP) – RIO DE JANEIRO, JUNE 07 – A man suspected of being one of the top organized crime bosses in Rio de Janeiro was killed by police in a shootout during his arrest. The local authorities reported this.
“Rui Paulo Gonçalves Estevão, known as Pipito, was the alleged leader – explained the police in a press release – of a ‘militia’, a criminal group that sows terror in working-class neighborhoods, practicing all types of extortion. When was approached, attacked the officers and a shootout ensued. The criminal was hit, taken to hospital, but died from his injuries.” According to Rio’s governor, Claudio Castro, the boss had “given the order to burn 35 buses” last October in western Rio, after the death of another organized crime leader.
The militias were formed in Rio about forty years ago.
Initially composed of former members of the police, they were initially self-defense groups against drug traffickers but in reality they act like mafias, through extortion, controlling services such as gas distribution, Internet access, local transport and via television cable. According to the federal police, Marielle Franco, a city councilor murdered in 2018, was killed precisely because she opposed the interests of the militias. (ANSA-AFP).
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
