Militias Fleece Locals for Basic Services in Rio Favelas
In many of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, criminal organizations are setting exorbitant prices for gas cylinders, knowing that residents will have no choice but to pay up.
Residents in Rio de Janeiro's marginalized favelas are contending with yet another massive police operation promising to deliver a true state presence. That is, once the territory has been reclaimed…
The death of a top Red Command leader near Rio de Janeiro raises questions about the success of coordinated attempts to weaken one of Brazil’s toughest gangs, both materially and…
Rio de Janeiro’s foremost militia leader has been gunned down by police, potentially shattering the belief that militias in the city were protected due to connections with authorities. But was…
By undercutting legal streaming apps, militia groups are providing an illegal television service to millions of households in Brazil, earning them a fortune and bankrolling other criminal activities.
Manaus, the economic heart of Brazil’s Amazon, has come under siege from the Red Command gang after the killing of a top drug leader. But these attacks may be the…
Escritório do Crime (Office of Crime) is one of the largest and most powerful militia groups in Brazil’s second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro.
As part of a mounting campaign going after criminal finances, police in Rio de Janeiro have asked courts to seize control of legal businesses used by militia groups to launder…
As COVID-19 threatened the well-being of the populations they depend on for criminal income, it was largely in the interest of criminal groups to try and keep the pandemic under…
Political assassinations have marred successive Brazilian elections but the pace of these killings has more than doubled in 2020, with the power of militia groups blamed for much of the…
New details about militias in Brazil’s rural areas reveal how these criminal groups have spread rapidly in strategic regions around the country.
Police in Rio de Janeiro have targeted one of the city's oldest and largest militias, but the conditions that first gave rise to these groups decades ago and allowed them…
A series of revelations about how militias in Rio de Janeiro are laundering large quantities of money through illegal real estate shines a light on the impunity with which these…