Rio Police Arrest Major Players in Criminal Organization Red Command

08/12/2015 - 09h22

Police officers from Rio's elite Battalion of Special Police Operations (BOPE, in its Portuguese acronym) arrested on Tuesday (11) the drugs traffickers Ricardo Chaves de Castro Lima, 44, alias Fu da Mineira, and Cláudio José de Souza Fontarigo, 45, also known as Claudinho.

Castro Lima is considered one of the main leaders of the criminal organization Red Command (CV). In 2009, he led a series of attacks on city buses and police stations in Rio. Souza Fontarigo, his cousin, was thought to be one of Rio's main kidnappers in the 1990s.

The arrests were made in the Complexo do Chapadão, in the north of the city. Four other men were also arrested. The group was carrying five rifles with them at the time.

Both Castro Lima and Souza Fontarigo had been considered fugitives since August 2013, when, after being given seven days in which to visit their families whilst incarcerated at a federal prison in Rondônia, they failed to return.

The two men will now return to prison, where they are serving time for kidnapping, homicide, drugs trafficking and armed robbery.

The arrests come three days after the death of Celso Pimenta Pinheiro, 33, alias Playboy, boss of the drugs trade in the Complexo da Pedreira, in the north of Rio.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Reprodução/Twitter/Real_BOPE_RJ
	Rio police arrest major players in criminal organization Red Command (CV)