Dozens of homicides, disappearances, assassination attempts, debts resolved by bullets. Bribes, money laundering, smuggling and tax evasion. This is part of the list of crimes of the illegal cigarette mafiawhich has grown in recent years in Rio and is already controls at least 45 of the 92 municipalities of State (See the list of cities below).
In almost half of Rio de Janeiro, including the capital and Baixada Fluminense, the sale of Paraguayan cigarettes is prohibitedand only packs produced by the gang can be sold.
For weeks, the RJ2 collected data from the police and Justice to outline the panorama of one of the most profitable sectors of organized crime – and which is related to misdemeanor, with militiasas drug trafficking and even with the carnival.
It is a billion business: from 2018 to 2023, only tax evasion, the counterfeit cigarette market stopped paying R$10 billion in taxes across Brazil in five years – more than R$2 billion in Rio de Janeiro alone.
Deaths, disappearances and kidnappings
In communities, the rule is clear: only cigarettes from the group can enter. Anyone who disrespects it risks their lives.
The gang transformed illegality into a monopoly. A profitable and extremely violent business.
Anyone who crosses the path of the group’s interests faces death threats and extortion. If he doesn’t agree to participate, he dies.
A survey carried out by RJ2 in the homicide police stations in the capital and Baixada Fluminense, from 2022 to date, at least 20 occurrences in between deaths It is attempts of murder, disappearances It is kidnappings linked to the cigarette mafia.
Among the occurrences were at least:
- 6 in Baixada municipalities (São João de Meriti, Belford Roxo, Nilópolis, Nova Iguaçu and Duque de Caxias)
- 6 in the West Zone From Rio
- 5 in the North Zone 1 in the Center from the capital
Tobacco shop owner murdered
Like the owner of a tobacco shop in Recreio, in the West Zone. According to investigations by the Homicide Police, Cristiano de Souza was killed because he refused to sell mafia cigarettes.
The gang discovered that he bought a machine to make his own cigarettes and planned to expand the business.
In June last year, Cristiano was murdered, around noon, on a quiet street in the neighborhood.
Missing street vendor and kidnapped woman
Anderson Reis dos Santos was another victim. The street vendor sold Paraguayan cigarettes in Nilópolis and was threatened by the gang.
Anderson’s wife was kidnapped as a way of intimidating the street vendor; the crime took place in December 2022.
Anderson would not have given in to the group’s interests. The street vendor is missing, but information gathered by the police shows that he was murdered by the gang.
‘I killed him like hell’, says criminal in audio
An audio part of the investigation into one of the murders linked to the cigarette mafia shows how the gang acts:
“Fuck, leave the body there (…) I broke (killed) about three of them, then it was fucked up. I fucking killed it. I set his body on fire, and people thought it was a balloon (laughs)”, reveals the audio.
More than 80 running shots
The way this other victim was killed speaks to the brutality of the group. Tiago Barbosa was aboard a BMW valued at more than R$1 million in Nova Iguaçu, Baixada Fluminense, when the vehicle was hit by more than 80 shots.
Not even the car’s armor was able to prevent the execution. The investigation points to the dispute over control of the illegal sale of cigarettes as the reason for the murder.
Civil and Federal Police investigations showed that the man behind the monopoly on the sale of illegal cigarettes in Rio is Adilson Oliveira Coutinho Filho, known as Adilsinho.
His name or those of people linked to him appear in the majority of homicides investigated in the capital and in the lower reaches of Rio de Janeiro as a result of the cigarette dispute.
The details of how the gang he was accused of leading operates were revealed by two recent investigations – by Gaeco, an agency of the Public Ministry of Rio, and by the Federal Police.
In operations “Smoke Free”, in November 2022, and “fumus”, in the previous year, almost 70 arrest warrants were issued by the courts. Among the targets were Adilsinho and Cláudio Coutinho de Oliveira.
O Adilsinho’s lawyer stated that he reiterates that the innocence of your client.
Investigations found that the group had generated more than R$45 million in illegal business and caused a loss of around R$2 billion to public coffers through tax evasion.
In both actions, 125 search and seizure warrants were executed in Duque de Caxias and Campos dos Goytacazes, in addition to the capital.
Among the addresses visited by the police were cigarette factories owned by Adilsinho.
You 45 municipalities where the mafia operates of cigarette:
- sand
- Angra dos Reis
- Araruama
- Cable camp
- Barra Mansa
- Barra do Piraí
- Campos dos Goytacazes
- Duke of Caxias
- Engineer Paulo de Frontin
- Big Iguaba
- Itaguaí
- Itaboraí
- Itatiaia
- Itaperuna
- Mangaratiba
- Miracema
- Miguel Pereira
- mosque
- Magé
- Sissy boy
- Mendes
- New Iguaçu
- Niterói
- Porto Real
- Piraí
- Paracambi
- Paty do Ensign
- Portiuncula
- Petrópolis
- Pine forest
- beautiful river
- clear river
- oysters River
- Resende
- Rio das Flores
- Rio de Janeiro
- São Pedro da Aldeia
- St. Johns Wood
- Saquarema
- São José do Vale do Rio Preto
- Tanguá
- Teresópolis
- Brooms
- Valença
- Volta Redonda
Tags: Cigarette mafia controls cities expands based bullets police investigate violent crimes linked disputes Rio Janeiro
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