Brazil’s top criminal leader Zinho arrested by Federal Police

Following talks with local authorities, one of Brazil’s most prominent criminal leaders surrendered himself on Sunday, according to the federal police.

Zinho, whose real name is Luiz Antônio da Silva Braga, is the head of the biggest militia in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Federal police said that 12 arrest warrants had been issued for him.

“After the formalities due to his arrest, the inmate was taken for medical forensics and then sent to the state’s prison system, where he will remain available for our courts,” federal police said.

When militias first began to take shape in the 1990s, they were primarily composed of ex-soldiers, police officers, and firefighters who were determined to fight crime in their communities. They began charging locals for security and other services, and more recently, they started their own drug trafficking operation.

Zinho’s gang is the dominant force in Rio’s west, an area where several of his gang members have been killed recently. He has been absconding since 2018.

As per PTI, Ricardo Cappelli, executive secretary of the federal Justice Ministry, said on social media that the federal police had conducted several investigations until it reached Zinho. The militias are believed to control about 10% of Rio’s metropolitan area, according to a study last year by the non-profit Fogo Cruzado and a security-focused research group at the Fluminense Federal University.

In October, gang members in Zinho’s group’s dominion area made headlines when they set fire to at least 35 buses, allegedly as payback for one of their leaders being killed by police. Although there were no casualties from the attack, which happened far from Rio’s tourist areas, it did highlight the militias’ capacity to wreak havoc and cause damage.

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