Brazil: Rio’s most wanted criminal arrested

2023-12-25 23:21:02

Luis Antonio da Silva Braga, also known as “Zinho”. Image: AFP

Rio de Janeiro’s “enemy number one” was arrested on Christmas Eve after years on the run. There were at least twelve arrest warrants against the leader of the city’s largest militia, the “Liga da Justiça”.

The most wanted criminal in the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro has been arrested in Brazil. Luis Antônio da Silva Braga, known as Zinho, had been on the run since 2018 and had turned himself in to the police, the federal police said on the night of Christmas Eve (local time). He is considered the leader of Rio’s largest militia, the “Liga da Justiça” (League of Justice), and is, according to the governor of the state Cláudio Castro, “Rio’s number one enemy”. There are at least twelve arrest warrants against him. He turned himself in after negotiations between his lawyers and the federal police and the state’s Secretariat for Public Security, it said.

“This is another important result of the serious and systematic work carried out in Rio de Janeiro and other states to combat criminal organizations,” Brazil’s Justice Minister Flávio Dino said, according to state news agency Agencia Brasil.

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Militias consist, among other things, of active and former police officers who are involved in drug trafficking and protection rackets. They decide who gets electricity, gas and running water in the regions they control. Zinho’s crime syndicate primarily dominates Rio’s western zone. At least 35 buses and a train were set on fire there in October after the militia chief’s nephew and right-hand man was killed by the police. The violence led to the closure of schools and paralyzed traffic in many places. The police assume that the buses that were set on fire were an act of revenge by the militia.