At least 30 inmates killed and mutilated in Brazil prison

At least 30 prisoners have been murdered in a jail in the far north
of Brazil, marking a worsening security situation in Brazil as rival
drug gangs fight for control of the lucrative drug trade.

Media in Roraima state carried shocking images of a pile of
mutilated corpses, some missing limbs and heads, and even a
heart, on a bloodstained corridor floor of the prison in Boa Vista,
the state capital. Mutilations and decapitations are common in
Brazil’s medieval and overcrowded prison system, where drug
gangs rule.

“It is a barbarity,” said Francilene Vargas, an officer from the
Roraima narcotics department who had seen the scenes inside
the prison after the incident in the early hours of Friday morning.
The killing spree came five days after a massacre at a prison in
Manaus , in which 56 prisoners were killed. Four more were killed
in a nearby institution on 2 January.

The Manaus violence was blamed on a battle between two drug
gangs – the Manaus-based Northern Family (FDN, in its
Portuguese acronym) and São Paulo’s First Capital Command
(PCC), the most powerful gang in Brazil. Authorities in Manaus
said the FDN had attacked and killed members of the PCC, along
with a few other prisoners.

One image from the Boa Vista prison showed a phrase written in
blood on the tiled floor that read, “The PCC are in charge here.
Blood is paid for with blood”, raising fears that the incident was a
revenge attack for the Manaus massacre.

Vargas said it was too early to say if this was the case. “Bodies
are still being counted,” she said. “We know there are a
considerable amount of bodies, and we are investigating the
relationship with what happened in Manaus.”

Vargas said the PCC was the dominant drug gang in Roraima’s
prisons, which indicated it had “the bigger command” of the
overall drug trade.

“The Northern Family has few members [in Roraima],” she said.
“What we perceive is that the commanders in other states are
arriving here and there are orders from other states being
followed here.”

Uziel Castro, the Roraima state secretary for justice and
citizenship, said PCC prisoners had attacked other inmates who
were not linked to any drug gang.

“What happened was an isolated action by members of the PCC
– a criminal organisation that exists in the prison system –
against people who were not from any faction,” he said.

According to police, the FDN has become increasingly powerful in
the Amazon as it seeks to dominate the area’s drug trade. It has
been fighting the PCC for control of drug routes from Peru and
Colombia, down the Solimões River to Manaus, a major city, and
on to Europe.

Complicating further Brazil’s tenuous security situation, the PCC
broke last year with its long-time rivals, Rio’s Red Command –
Brazil’s second biggest gang – who have now allied with the
FDN.

Carlos Ramos, a police corporal and communications coordinator
for its Association of Firefighters and Military (or street) Police,
said security sources in the state believe that only a few FDN
members at most died in the killing. Most worked in the kitchen
area.

“As they couldn’t get into other wings to do the massacre, they
did those they could reach. They just executed for the sake of
ease,” he said. The killing came in response to a general order
from PCC bosses, he said.

Ramos said prisoners circulated freely inside their respective
wings in the overcrowded prison, which is filled to twice its
capacity, according to media reports.

“Even when the cells are locked, they know how to open the
locks,” he said. “Locks are a toy for them.”

Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, has struggled to manage the
growing prison crisis. After saying nothing for three days following
the Manaus massacre, he was ridiculed for describing it as a
“terrible accident”.

Theguardian