HomeNewsBriefRio Militia Boss Flees Jail
BRIEF

Rio Militia Boss Flees Jail

BRAZIL / 2 SEP 2011 BY HANNAH STONE EN

A leader of the Justice League, one of Rio de Janeiro's most powerful militia groups, escaped from prison after the launch of an operation against his gang.

Carlos Ari Ribeiro, alias "Carlao," had been in custody since June 2010, and was being held in the military police's Special Prison Unit (Batalhão Especial Prisional) in a northern neighborhood of the city. He is a former military policeman who is a key member the Justice League (Liga da Justica).

His escape, in the early hours of Friday morning, came the day after police launched an operation against the group, arresting five alleged members.

Campaign group Amnesty International has criticized the "lax security" for current and former police officers held in the Special Prison Unit, noting reports that prisoners have been allowed to leave jail to commit assassinations.

Other members of the Justice League have escaped from the same facility, including now-recaptured Ricardo Teixeira da Cruz, known as “Batman.”

The Justice League is led by two former politicians,·Natalino Guimarães and his brother Jerominho. It is funded by extortion and provision of bootleg public services, such as transport and the Internet.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 14 FEB 2023

Police in Ceará, Brazil, have been detained for alleged connections to organized crime in alarming numbers.

BRAZIL / 26 JUL 2023

On paper, Latin American governments are fighting back against the shark fin trade. In reality, the massacre continues.

BRAZIL / 8 AUG 2023

The tri-border where Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela meet has long served as a transit corridor for cocaine.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…