International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 32

Territorial and Corrosive: The “jogo do bicho” (Animal Game) and Organized Crime in Brazil
Evidence of this kind, collected by the investigators, shows the level of organization
and centralization put in place by the leaders. The aim of all this is to
avoid the bloody territorial wars that had tarnished the Bicheiros’ record between
1980 and 2000.
However, the transfer of power within the families is not always without its
difficulties. For example, in the Andrade family, a war broke out after the death of
the capo, Castor de Andrade, who left his son Paulo to run the business. This did
not go down well with the chief ’s nephew, Rogério de Andrade, who murdered his
cousin in an ambush. Castor de Andrade’s son-in-law, Fernando Iggnácio, swore
vengeance. As a result, since 1997, the year of Castor’s death, more than fifty people
have been killed. The finale occurred in the heart of Barra da Tijuca, a wealthy
quarter in the west of Rio. On April 10, 2010, Rogério de Andrade’s car blew up
in the middle of a boulevard, injuring him and killing his seventeen-year-old son,
who was driving. These disputes and murders harm business and alert the authorities
who are forced to take action, even when they are corrupt. This brings us to
another of the organization’s defining traits: secrecy.
SECRECY
This trait is shared with the Italian Mafia. Its importance is paramount, because
it allows the organization to perpetuate itself. In order to remain
strong and to operate at the center of the system, mafiosi live in the shadows.
When this rule is not observed, mafia organizations suffer. An example of
this is the Second Mafia War, 53 when the Corleonesi faction fought other Cosa
Nostra clans, resulting in hundreds of Mafia deaths and a climate of fear that followed
the assassination of officials, including the judges Giovanni Falcone and
Paolo Borsellino.
Likewise, disputes between the Bicheiros of Rio in the 1980s and 1990s, when
power passed from the older generation of barons to their heirs, led to the trial of
1993 and their first convictions. When the Bicheiros were examined, the close ties
between them were revealed. Yet Anísio even asserted during the Misaque-Jatobá
trial that he did not know Guimarães—a typically mafioso statement.
Judge Ana Paula Vieira de Carvalho pointed out that a clandestine operation
relies on compartmentalization. 54 The godfathers of the game create a chain of
command in which orders do not go directly from the cupola to the foot soldiers.
The bosses can thus protect themselves against potential incrimination, since they
themselves commit no criminal act. In addition, great secrecy attends the organization
of high level meetings, as on March 12, 2007 at the house of Anísio Abrahão
David: the Bicheiros are shown in a photograph arriving with their bodyguards.
53 Gayraud, Le monde des mafias.
54 Decision of Judge Ana Paula de Carvalho in trial record no. 2007.51.01.802985-5, Justiça
Federal, Rio de Janeiro, 2012: 368
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