International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 36

Territorial and Corrosive: The “jogo do bicho” (Animal Game) and Organized Crime in Brazil
The Heaviest Sentence Ever Served by the Bicheiros
The investigation resulted in two rulings by Federal Judge Ana Paula Vieira de
Carvalho. In the first (March 13, 2012) she sentenced Ailton Guimarães Jorge
(Capitão Guimarães), Anísio Abrahão David, and Antônio Petrus Kalil (the
Turk)—the criminal organization’s heavy hitters—as well as Kalil’s heirs, to forty-eight
years in prison for criminal conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering.
Other defendants were sentenced to twenty-one years, including corrupt lawyers,
and police officers. Implicated magistrates await the judgement of the Supreme
Court of Justice or the Supreme Federal Court. Politicians who have parliamentary
immunity have not yet been prosecuted.
This operation hit the criminal organization hard, because the casinos were
banned for good, making a significant dent in their turnover. Moreover, the judiciary
seized criminal assets, houses, apartments, boats, and bank accounts in
Brazil and abroad. However, the Bicheiros still have their freedom while they await
the Appeal Court’s judgement, continuing to manage their affairs and seeking other
legal loopholes to avoid prison.
CONCLUSION
All the above factors attest to the fact that the organization created by the
Bicheiros is certainly in the mafia mold, managed in a modern and businesslike
way, and benefiting from a network of partners and associates
who guarantee the success and stability of their legal and illegal activities. This mafia
does not have the same international reputation nor the power of other mafias
originating in Italy, Russia, Japan, China, and so on. However, it has built its business
skillfully and has evolved in the same way as other mafia organizations. It has
conquered its territory by means of intimidation, violence, and complicity with
public officials. It has developed by increasing its spheres of influence, to maximize
profits. It has learnt to divide up responsibilities and tasks and to cooperate with
other families, rather than fighting with them. 60
Taking all of this into account, there is no doubt that behind this clandestine
lottery, deeply embedded in local culture, lurks a powerful mafia organization.
Yet Brazilian society’s understanding of this criminal phenomenon remains
vague. As we have seen, the jobs created by the carnival and the operation of the
animal game give the Bicheiros legitimacy in the eyes of the working classes. This
phenomenon also exists in Italy, where the inhabitants of regions controlled by the
Mafia believe that the Mafiosi do more for them than the state. This complicates
the struggle against the mafia. According to Jean-François Gayraud:
The eradication of high-level organized crime can only be achieved
in one of two ways. The first is prompt, proactive intellectual and
60 Gayraud, Le monde des mafias, 67.
33