International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 30

Territorial and Corrosive: The “jogo do bicho” (Animal Game) and Organized Crime in Brazil
always maneuvered within the highest reaches of power. It was said that General
Waldir Alves Muniz, Rio’s police commissioner, had been instructed by the military
dictatorship to “avoid problems with Castor.” When he was president, General
Figueiredo was said to have broken with presidential protocol by shaking Castor de
Andrade’s hand at an event. These stories demonstrate the power of the Bicheiros,
especially under the military regime, and the myths that surround them.
Hierarchical Structure
The investigation discovered, as Judge Ana Paula de Carvalho reiterated in her
sentencing, 51 that the highest level of the cupola consisted of the barons Anísio
Abrahão David, Ailton Guimarães Jorge, and Antônio Petrus Kalil. Family members
of the capi made up the second level. Júlio Guimarães was right-hand man to
his uncle, Ailton Guimarães Jorge. In Anísio Abrahão David’s clan, Nagibe Suaid
and the brothers José Renato Granado Ferreira and Belmiro Martins Ferreira took
care of management and logistics. Antônio Petrus Kalil’s deputies were his sons,
Marcelo and Antônio.
This family-based structure acts as an “executive board,” with a crucial role
in management, centralizing decisions and settling disputes. Evidence shows that
the board adjudicates and punishes transgressions according to a code of conduct
specific to the Bicheiros. The documents found during the raids show the allocation
of profits to the chiefs. For example, the accounts of Julio Guimarães, Capitão
Guimarães’s nephew, show that his share was much less than his uncle’s. However,
telephone bugging revealed that the “uncles,” as their subordinates call them, make
decisions without getting too closely involved: they may all flatly deny the existence
of this structure, but the uncles are at the top of the tree. They authorize deals
and then delegate to relatives (and future heirs), eventually enabling the Bicheiros
at the bottom of the ladder to run some territories.
The uncles get the lion’s share of the profits. Remaining sums are shared
amongst the lesser bicheiros, according to rank. The organization’s employees receive
a monthly salary. The investigation showed that several police officers were regular
employees, working for the Bicheiros as chauffeurs, bodyguards, or right-hand men
to some of the godfathers. The police chiefs in the departments where these police
officers “worked” were paid to turn a blind eye to the absence of their staff.
LONGEVITY AND TERRITORIAL CONTROL
In terms of longevity, this organization has clearly made sure of its own perpetuity.
Recent history has shown that the organization was pursued first by the
military, then by the law in the 1990s and by Operation Furacão in 2007. Yet it
has always managed to adapt, to recover and to carry on with its business. Paulo
51 Decision of Judge Ana Paula de Carvalho in trial record no. 2007.51.01.802985-5, Justiça
Federal, Rio de Janeiro, 2012: 276
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