International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 35

International Journal on Criminology
judge’s questioning, Lauricella described the arrangement between the Italian
Mafia and the Bicheiros. Lauricella stated that in order to operate on Brazilian
territory, it was necessary to have a connection with Brazilian organized crime. He
explained that the Italians had come to an agreement in São Paulo with Ivo Noal,
and in Rio de Janeiro with the “animal game cupola.” Lauricella testified: “We paid
Ivo Noal $80,000 a month. We got started in Brazil because Alejandro Ortiz was
there, he was stronger, it was he who got started in Brazil with Filippeddu. In Rio
there’s a cupola, “the cupola of Rio,” just like we have [in Italy], with a capo and
sottocapi in each zone.” 58
As regards links between the Bicheiros and other mafias, Judge Vieira de
Carvalho also noted that “there were other pointers that would be worth exploring,
showing the organization’s connections with other foreign mafias.” 59
Even after all these years, the raid carried out on the headquarters of the
Brazilian company Betec Games, which imported the electronic machines installed
in casinos, as well as slot machines installed in local shops, corroborated
Lillo Lauricella’s revelations, since its shareholders at the time included José
Renato Granado Ferreira and his brother Belmiro Martins.
Betec had previously been owned by the companies BMT Brasil Informática
and Informática Franco, this last belonging to the Italian Giuseppe Aronica and
the Spaniard Alejandro Ortiz, together with his son Johnny Viveiro Ortiz. Then,
in the house belonging to the lawyer Silvério Nery Júnior, the federal police seized
a file labelled “Ortiz family dossier.” The investigators found that it contained a
Brazilian newspaper article, dated March 17, 2004, referring to the relations between
foreign mafia organizations and Brazilian entrepreneurs whose business
was games of chance. The article makes reference to the Italian operation known
as “Malocchio.”
In 2011, a year after the attempt on Rogério de Andrade’s life, a federal
police inquiry led to the arrest of Israelis Meier Zloff and Yoram El Al, one of the
FBI’s fifteen most wanted men. The Israelis were suspected of having organized
the attack on Rogério and being implicated in the operation of slot machines,
smuggling luxury cars, and international drug trafficking. The involvement of
Israeli organized crime (the Albergil family) in the animal game business shows
that the carioca Bicheiros did not confine their connections with other mafias to
the Italians.
58 The original text reads: “Ivo Noal noi lo pagavamo 80 mila dollari al mese. Noi partiamo
dal Brasile perché c´era Ortiz, che era più forte, cioè è lui che parte dal Brasile com [stet]
Filippeddu. A Rio de Janeiro esiste uma [stet] cupola, cosidetta cupola a Rio de Janeiro e a
livello cupola come la intendiamo noi, eh, dove c´è capo e ci sono sottocapi per zone.” “Máfia,
Política, Jogos de Azar e Cachoeira,” Instituto Brasiliero Giovanni Falcone, accessed February
10, 2018. http://www.ibgf.org.br/index.php?data[id_secao]=3&data[id_materia]=33
59 Decision of Judge Ana Paula de Carvalho in trial record no. 2007.51.01.802985-5, Justiça
Federal, Rio de Janeiro, 2012: 908.
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