International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 45

International Journal on Criminology
certain election campaigns and influencing votes in at least ten states of the country,
particularly through the families of imprisoned members and their “associates”
outside. In the words of this lawyer, the PCC is sufficiently powerful and influential
to win parliamentary representation, and he goes so far as to compare the gang to the
IRA and Sinn Fein.
In February 2014 it was reported, according to police intelligence, that the PCC
was planning to have Marcola sprung from jail. Imprisoned in Presidente Venceslau
prison, Marcola and three other leaders of the CPC (Barbara Claudio da Silva; Celio
Marcelo da Silva, known as “Bin Laden” and Luiz Eduardo Marcondes Machado,
known as “De La Bela Vista”) planned an escape by air. A commando helicopter was to
arrive in the colors of the Military Police, to take away the four men in an armored pod.
Another helicopter, equipped with a machine gun, was to ensure the protection of the
first aircraft. A small plane was waiting to take the bosses to Paraguay. The authorities
initially considered transferring those involved in the plan to a prison with a strict
disciplinary regime, but the PCC is said to have threatened to disrupt the inauguration
of the World Cup in San Paulo on June 12, 2014. Some observers, however, think that
this affair may have been exaggerated at a time when elections were about to take
place.
Since then, according to the Brazilian intelligence services, the PCC has made
a number of agreements with Hezbollah, 86 which is very active in the “tri-border area”
between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. In exchange for protection of their members
imprisoned in Brazil, Hezbollah facilitates the trafficking of arms and explosives to
the PCC. This agreement was concluded in 2006, notably through a travel agent called
Farouk Abdul Hay Omairi, regarded as the coordinator of Hezbollah in Brazil. He was
sentenced in 2007 to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking. He has been out on parole
since 2012.
2 - Venezuela: Extreme Violence
September 17, 2013 saw a battle between gangs which left sixteen people dead
in the Venezuelan prison of Maracaibo, known as “La Sabaneta.” This was a conflict
between pranes 87 for control of the different prison wings. The battle began when
Edwin “El Mocho” Soto, head of the gang El Tren del Norte, and thirty of his men
knocked down a wall to invade the territory of another gang.
Equipped with bulletproof vests, firearms, grenades and Molotov cocktails,
Soto's men forced their rivals to surrender then slaughtered them all. Pran Ricardo
Moreno had his heart cut from his chest, his brother Engelbert Moreno, another
pran, was also killed, while a third brother, Ronald Moreno had his eyes gouged out.
Engelbert Anez, another prisoner, was castrated and had his ears cut off. A third pran,
Jobel Valenciano was completely dismembered. Photos of the massacre were then
86
O Globo, November 9, 2014.
87
Pran, pl. pranes: prison criminal gang leader.
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