Pubdate: Fri, 13 Sep 2002
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Paula Gobbi and Hector Tobar
Note: Gobbi reported from Rio de Janeiro and Tobar from Buenos Aires.

4 ARE SLAIN IN BRAZILIAN PRISON RIOT

Violence: Drug Lord Took Over Parts Of The Facility And Killed Rival
Bosses, Officials Say.

RIO DE JANEIRO -- One of Brazil's most notorious drug lords
surrendered Thursday after taking over parts of a maximum-security
prison and killing four rival crime bosses, officials said.

Luiz Fernando da Costa smiled widely and sang a tune before he and
members of his Red Command crime syndicate released their hostages and
turned in their weapons to authorities inside Rio's Bangu I
penitentiary.

The surrender of Da Costa, also known as Fernandinho Beira Mar (Freddy
Seashore), ended a 24-hour prison riot whose violence spread outside
the facility into several neighborhoods controlled by the rival drug
lords.

The uprising highlighted the intractable corruption inside Brazil's
penal system, the lawlessness that plagues vast chunks of this city
and the growing ruthlessness and ambition of Rio's increasingly
powerful drug lords.

"The objective wasn't escape," said Roberto Aguiar, security chief for
Rio de Janeiro state. "It was to unite the [organized crime]
leadership. Anyone who opposed this was eliminated."

Da Costa's top rival, Ernaldo Pinto de Medeiros, was shot to death and
his corpse set ablaze. Gang members loyal to the vanquished leader,
who was also known as Ue, stormed through at least nine Rio
neighborhoods, forcing businesses to close in "mourning" for his
death. Several schools also shut down, as did Rio's Federal University.

The episode is only the latest in a series of exploits by Da Costa,
once just another poor resident of a Rio slum but later a feared drug
kingpin who forged links with guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.

Police say Da Costa fancies himself a Rio version of Pablo Escobar,
the Colombian drug lord slain by police in 1993, and has worked hard
to establish ties with international traffickers of narcotics and
arms, even during the 18 months he has spent inside Colombian and
Brazilian jails.

"He may be the only local drug dealer to have access to the
international market of drugs and arms on a wholesale and retail
basis," said Luiz Eduardo Soares, an anthropologist who has studied
crime here. "That is why he wants to subordinate the rest to his control."

The uprising began at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said, when Da
Costa took four guards and four construction workers hostage. With the
guards' keys in hand, the prisoners moved on to another cellblock that
held leaders of two rival gangs: the Third Command and their allies,
the Friends of Friends.

One rival leader submitted to Da Costa's authority after being beaten
up and was allowed to live, according to press reports here. But De
Medeiros would not and was killed.

Government wiretaps captured Da Costa laughing about the killings in
calls to associates outside the prison, authorities said.

"Ta dominado, ta tudo dominado," Da Costa sang, mimicking a popular
song here. "It's under control, totally under control."

Da Costa was arrested in April 2001 by the Colombian army and
extradited to Brazil. Federal authorities transferred him to the Rio
prison this year, a move opposed by local officials.

Aguiar said 12 guards and the prison warden would be charged with
aiding Da Costa and his underlings. Judge Nilson Naves, president of
Brazil's highest criminal court, said the riot "offers proof that the
Brazilian penal system has collapsed."

Outside the prison, gang members were said to have opened fire on at
least four schools. They also reportedly invaded a supermarket in
Bonsucesso, a neighborhood in northern Rio, far across the city from
the penitentiary.

"We are so afraid--many of us live in conflict areas, in the favelas
[slums] close to here," said one worker at the market. "We don't even
know how we will get home."

Fearing more violence, many parents rushed to schools to pick up their
children. Two buses were set ablaze in Bonsucesso, and some bus
companies later changed their routes.

While much the city lived in a state of apprehension, criminal groups
of the Red Command celebrated. On Wednesday night, drug dealers from
the Morro da Providencia neighborhood shot mortar shells into the air.

In the Complexo da Mare, a collection of favelas, another drug gang
celebrated with fireworks. 
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager