Wanted Brazil militia leader surrenders to police

SAO PAULO: The leader of a notorious paramilitary group in Brazil, wanted for a multitude of crimes, handed himself over to police on Sunday, the authorities said.

The head of Rio de Janeiro state´s biggest paramilitary group, Luis Antonio da Silva Braga, better known as Zinho, had been on the run since 2018 and is the subject of at least a dozen outstanding warrants, according to a police statement issued late Sunday.

“Zinho” has been designated the state´s “public enemy Number 1.” He handed himself over to the Federal Police in southeast Rio on Sunday and was arrested, said the statement.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino hailed the arrest on X Monday as a victory “in the fight against criminal groups.” Militia groups sprung up some four decades ago from the ranks of former police, soldiers, firefighters and prison guards as community self-defense units against the threat posed by drug gangs in the city known for its picturesque beaches but also its violent crime.

Initially well-meaning, they later started extorting “protection” money from businesses and took control of service provision to inhabitants of Rio´s poor favelas. They have in recent years expanded into drug trafficking and money laundering.

The militias control more than half of Rio´s territory, imposing a reign of terror in poor neighborhoods home to more than two million people, according to a 2020 study by a consortium of universities, online watchdog platforms and a government anti-crime hotline.

In October, the killing by police of a nephew and lieutenant of Zinho saw militia members torch 35 buses and a train drivers´ cabin in Rio. The same month, militia were blamed for the murders of three doctors visiting Rio for a conference after one was apparently mistaken for the leader of a rival group.