Two High-Profile Kidnappings in Brazil Ordered from Prison

The Brazilian police have strong suspicions that two recent kidnappings, which had international repercussion, were masterminded by the PCC (First Command of the Capital), the same prison gang who has been terrorizing the country with dozens of killings and hundreds of burnings and bullet attacks since May.

One of the abductions involved two employees of Brazilian leading TV network, Globo, reporter Guilherme Portanova and technical aide, Alexandre Calado. Businessman José Fortes Reina was the other victim.

While the Globo’s men were held for a couple of days and released last weekend after Globo aired a three-minute video blasting the inhumane treatement of inmates in Brazilian jails, Reina was held captive for 33 days and he only got his freedom back yesterday (August 16) due to a kidnapper’s blunder.

According to the police, the order for both kidnappings seem to have originated inside the São Paulo prison system. Despite a recent crackdown that confiscated cellphones that were being used by gang bosses behind bars they still continue to give orders, apparently, through visitors, lawyers or prison employees.

The police only found Reina after a police car was attacked by one of the kidnappers when he mistakenly thought the authorities had discovered them. Officers who stormed the place found besides the businessman eight sticks of dynamite.

The explosives, according to the police, were to be used in future attacks against police stations and bank branches. The abductors, however, never got the ramson money they asked to free Reina: 4 million reais (about US$ 2 million). That money should be used to pay the way out of prison for some PCC members.

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil Asks for a More Democratic WTO

The Minister of Foreign Relations of Brazil, Celso Amorim, said he is confident that ...

In Brazil the Press Doesn’t Get Any Respect

Two reporters from the comedy show CQC (Custe o que Custar – Whatever the ...

At Brazil’s Dalutex Customer Creates Fabric’s Print and Color

Garment manufacturer Dalutex, which has a factory in Sorocaba, in the southeastern Brazilian state ...

Bolivia’s Gas Nationalization Might Cost Brazil’s Lula the Presidency

It was an almost theatrical strategic move. On May 1, his 100th day in ...

Foreigners React to Brazil’s Tax: Market Falls 3%, Dollar Rises 2%

The Brazilian financial market reacted swiftly and negatively to the news that the Brazil ...

Fitch Grants Brazil Investment Grade Following Standard & Poor’s

Following in the footsteps of Standard and Poor's Fitch Ratings became the second large ...

In Brazil, OPEC Chief Predicts Whole Word Will Add Alcohol to Gas

OPEC’s (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) president, Edmund Daukoru, is in Brazil where ...

With an Eye Overseas, Brazil Imposes Stricter Sanitary Control on Fish

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply and the Secretariat of Aquaculture and Fishing ...

US Company Flies You to Rio to Get a Brazilian Butt

CosmeticVacations, a US medical tourism operator based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has announced ...

Despite International Outcry Lula Gives Green Light to Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Thursday the contracts for ...