Crime bosses paid jurors to favour the Beija Flor school, according to a report in O Globo newspaper.

Beija Flor, one of the oldest and most traditional samba schools, won February’s competition for the fourth time in five years, getting 399.3 points from a maximum 400.

Authorities investigating the organised crime syndicates that fund many of Rio’s colourful samba schools heard wiretaps revealing mafia bosses were paying off judges. Anyone who did not accept the offer received death threats, the reports said. It is believed the mafia influenced the result in order to win money through betting on the outcome.

The city’s samba schools attract millions of visitors to Rio every year to participate in and watch the parade.

Rio carnival win fixed by mafia – By Andrew Downie in Rio de Janiero – Last Updated: 1:22am BST 11/06/2007 – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/11/wbrazil111.xml

Lula’s home in the São Bernardo do Campo suburb, in the Greater São Paulo, was searched this week by authorities as part of a federal police operation (Check Mate) that arrested 87 people on charges of smuggling electronic gambling machines and bribing police in Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Police did not say what was seized in Silva’s brother’s home or elaborate on the motives for the accusation. President Lula, initially, denied his brother, known as Vavá, is linked to illegal gambling and said he is innocent.”

“I don’t believe that Vavá has anything to do with anything,” Silva said in a statement from India, where he was on an official visit earlier this week.

But, he added, “If there is a court order and his name is on it, have patience, we are all subject to investigation.” In private the Brazilian president was quoted saying he doubted very much his brother had the “brains” for such a sophisticated operation.

Vavá’s son, Edson Inácio da Silva, told Globo TV that his father would not comment on the search, and that authorities only removed two papers, which he said were unimportant.

However according to police sources Lula’s brother was involved in setting up meetings between government officials and interested parties. Apparently this was what appeared on phone calls taped by the police investigation. These calls show Vavá asking for money from Nilton Cezar Servo, who is charged by the police as the chief of a slot machine Mafia.

Some of Vavá “clients” are linked to the electronic gambling machines business and apparently paid a fee ranging between US$ 1.500 and US$ 2.000 for appointments with government officials. However Vavá made it clear he had no responsibility in the outcome of the meetings. Influence peddling in Brazil is not a crime that entails jail.

In one of the tapes Vavá is caught talking with Nilton Cesar Servo an illegal gambling czar for whom the Check Mate operation was set up, but apparently the president’s brother was unable to obtain licences for the electronic gambling machines or impede their confiscation.

In Brazil electronic gambling machines and bingos are granted precarious licences because they are known to be used for laundering corruption money from government officials and police racketeering.

But not only his eldest brother Vavá was in trouble, a man very close to the Lula family, Dario Morelli, was arrested on corruption charges and suspended from his job in the city of Diadema’s sanitation department.

President Lula confirmed that Dario Morelli Filho – is a friend of the family.

Brazil’s First Brother Used Lula’s Name to Get Mafia Money, Say Police – Written by Newsroom – Saturday, 09 June 2007 – http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8335/1/

‘In our country 102 people die every day due to firearms only. This is absurd. There are more victims than in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis or in Iraq,’ sociologist Julio Weiselfiz said.

Weiselfiz led a recent study by the Organization of Iberian American States for Education, Science and Culture, that showed the state of Rio de Janeiro is the most dangerous place for children and teenagers. It sees about 103 minors dead per year per 100,000 inhabitants.

The high murder statistics can be attributed to the drug mafia, which has filled a vacuum created by the state through decades of neglect of poor people.

Drug bosses rule the around 600 favelas – as slum neighbourhoods are called – in the hills and suburbs of Rio like kings of a parallel state. They are often respected like modern Robin Hoods for ensuring order and carrying out socially-minded actions.

However, they also secure respect through their private militias. Most ‘soldiers’ of the drug barons are underage and are usually recruited from age 10.

The non-governmental organization Viva Rio has estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 armed children work for the drug mafia in Rio.

Mario, 22, began his ‘career’ with the mafia at age 8.

‘The police always treated us slum-children as criminals and hit us,’ he said. ‘I entered the organization in order to take revenge on the cops.’

By age 11 he was given his first handgun in Rocinha, which is the largest favela in Rio with 250,000 inhabitants. In his spare time, Mario stole to increase his weekly income of 500 real (around 230 dollars) and ‘to be more popular with girls.’

He also used grenades and machine guns in clashes with rival drug gangs.

‘My friends from that time are almost all dead,’ said Mario, who managed to break away from the gang at age 18.

With its estimated annual income of 150 million dollars, Rio’s drug mafia can afford an arsenal of real war weapons, including bazookas and anti-aircraft missiles.

Police officers – most of them with poor training – are not only armed more poorly, but are also paid less (325 to 520 dollars a month) than even the child-soldiers in the mafia.

It is no wonder that corruption is rife. The authorities admit many police agents and police chiefs side with the drug bosses.

‘Drugs and weapons, and also the huge social and economic inequality, shake the whole of Brazil. But Rio de Janeiro is the particular victim of a specially corrupt and incompetent police force,’ economics professor Jose Scheinkman wrote in a recent edition of the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.

Impunity is the greatest incentive for criminals. In Rio only 3 per cent of all murder cases are solved. According to Interpol that compares to 68 per cent in the US, 90 per cent in England and 43 per cent in neighbouring Argentina.

In the Cidade Maravilhosa – of ‘Wonderful City,’ as the inhabitants of Rio have called their city for decades – 99 per cent of those surveyed in a recent opinion poll mention terror as the greatest fear in their daily lives.

One Rio psychiatrist said his patients complain more often about nightmares, headaches and panic attacks, due to increasing violence.

He has noticed a rise in the number of patients after particularly spectacular criminal attacks.

Most people surveyed also complained about the apparent increase in poverty. According to a recent study, 3.1 million people – 20 per cent of the population – live beneath the poverty line in the state.

When one woman, Judith, drives to the hairdresser or to the gym in Rio de Janeiro, she always takes ‘Joao’ in the car with her.

‘Joao’ is a lifesize, muscular dummy that is supposed to give the impression that this Brazilian woman, the wife of a businessman, has company. Her car is armour-plated.

Judith is especially scared of thieves when she stops at a red light. Such attacks have become a routine in Rio.

In the meantime, the so-called ‘industry of insecurity’ thrives like no other branch of the economy, and accounts for 6.6 per cent of Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

By Emilio Rappold Jan 11, 2007, 12:03 GMT, dpa – Deutsche Presse-Agentur, http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/features/article_1242075.php/Rios_drug_mafia_causes_panic_with_heavy_weapons

The reports said that in the late-night violence, heavily-armed groups of drug mafia members drove around the city, attacking police patrols and guardposts with gunfire and grenades.

The attackers also stopped several passenger buses and set them on fire.

The television channel Globonews spoke of ‘four hours of uninterrupted terror’ in the city.

Most of the deaths occurred in the northern part of the city when an overland passenger bus travelling from the state of Espirito Santo to the city of Sao Paulo was stopped by 30 masked men and set ablaze.

At least seven charred bodies were removed later from the wreckage, reports said.

Also among the dead were several policemen and one mafia gang suspect, as well as a female street vendor. At least one child was badly wounded by bullets.

Gunbattles between police and the attackers raged for hours, while three men had been arrested.

The city of Rio de Janeiro was set to issue an official statement on the violence later Thursday.

It was the worst such violence since last May, when within a few days’ time around 120 persons were killed in mafia attacks in the city of Sao Paulo followed by retaliatory attacks by police.

In that violence, attacks against police were carried out by a mafia group called ‘First Capital Commando’ which was established by drug bosses still sitting behind bars.

It was not immediately known which group may have been behind the attacks in Rio

| dpa – Deutsche Presse-Agentur Dec 28, 2006, 14:00 GMT http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1237499.php/Sixteen_dead_in_mafia_terror_rampage_in_Rio_de_Janeiro__Roundup_