International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 28

Territorial and Corrosive: The “jogo do bicho” (Animal Game) and Organized Crime in Brazil
Characteristics of This Criminal Group as Revealed by the Investigations
The 1993 operation and Operation Furacão did not wipe out this criminal menace.
However, the wealthy of information made public by the sentence of the Furação
trial to criminologists and to the public was invaluable. Taking into account everything
that has been gathered over years of judicial investigation, we will now look
in more detail at the criteria that will allow us to conclude that the Bicheiros are a
mafia-type organization.
The organization devised by the bosses of the Club Baron de Drummond
has several characteristics that have certainly been noted by Brazilian legal practitioners
and criminologists, but also by their European counterparts, such as economist
and mafia specialist Clotilde Champeyrache, who describes a “hierarchical,
perennial structure, resorting to violence and intimidation to establish control
over its territories and to carry out illegal and legal activities.” 44
The Mafioso Mystique
The rules that govern the bicheiro’s life reflect the principles, traditions and “laws”
that guide and regulate criminal life. This aspect is typical of the mafia model, so
often exploited by American cinema. Just like Hollywood’s version of the Italo-
American Mafioso, the carioca bicheiro’s role is to be the protector of his family
and an accomplished and envied businessman. Keeping at a distance from the
“dirty jobs” that are assigned to his employees, the bicheiro cultivates his image as
a businessman running one of the Rio carnival’s samba schools, a wealthy executive
who is also an engaged and generous citizen: the bicheiro frequently hands
out social subsidies to families and individuals within his fiefdom. In this guise, he
finds favor with both high carioca society and Rio’s poor.
This behavior corroborates the similarity between the Bicheiros and mafiosi.
Here is what Clothilde Champeyrache says about the justifying myths that surround
such organizations: “The power of the mafia, whether in Italy or as the term
“mafia” is applied beyond Italy’s borders, relies on the ambiguity that surrounds
it. It is recognized as a criminal association and as such should be associated with
negative values. Yet it does not attract the censure that is usually attached to criminal
gangs. Instead, it maintains the aura of an “acceptable” criminality, peddling—
despite everything—positive values linked to honor, respect, and family.” 45
This description fits the Bicheiros. For example, Anísio Abrahão David is
honorary president of the Beija-Flor samba school, often the winner of the carioca
carnival, and has good relations with politicians and Brazilian artists. According
to a 2012 study by Luiz Carlos Prestes Filho, Culture Secretary for the State of Rio,
the carnival industry employs more than 250,000 people. Anísio Abrahão’s image
44 Clotilde Champeyrache, Sociétés du Crime—Un tour du monde des mafias (Paris: CNRS,
2007), 8.
45 Champeyrache, Sociétés du Crime, 35.
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