Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002
Source: CNN (US Web)
Copyright: 2002 Cable News Network, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.cnn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/65

CRIME GANG CLOSES RIO STORES, SCHOOLS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Stores and schools across Rio closed Monday, 
reportedly on orders from the city's most powerful crime gang to protest 
prison conditions of its jailed leader.

Police increased street patrols and no violence was reported, but fear shut 
down much of the city.

 From trendy Ipanema beach to the city's poor north side, scores of shops 
didn't open or quickly closed. The Estacio de Sa college let out classes 
and canceled scheduled exams because students and teachers stayed home.

Media reports said the shutdown order came from traffickers linked to Luiz 
Fernando da Costa, Brazil's most notorious drug lord.

His supporters were said to want better jail conditions for da Costa, who 
is better known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar -- Seaside Freddy in Portuguese.

Drug gangs control hundreds of Rio's favelas, or shantytowns, and often 
order nearby shops and schools to close when a prominent gang member is 
arrested or killed. But Monday's shutdown was much more widespread, 
affecting vast swaths of the city.

Police pleaded for storekeepers not to cave in to the pressure, and some 
reopened after shutting down for several hours. Store owners declined to 
answer questions from a reporter.

"We cannot tolerate this coercion," Frederico Caldas, a spokesman for the 
Rio de Janeiro military state police, said in a radio interview.

Earlier this month, da Costa led a bloody uprising in the maximum-security 
Bangu I prison in Rio. Members of his Red Command drug gang took hostages 
and killed four leaders of a rival gang before surrendering.

Rio de Janeiro State Security Chief Roberto Aguiar said da Costa intended 
to unite the warring criminal factions under his command. He said da Costa 
had bought the cooperation of guards and had continued to run drug 
operations and gang activities by cell phone from the prison.

After the rebellion, da Costa was transferred to a small top-security cell 
in a police camp, where Aguiar said he was monitored around the clock.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart