President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Friday (18) a joint task force of the federal, state and municipal governments to step up the fight against cargo theft on the main highway corridors of Rio de Janeiro state. He made the announcement at 10 a.m. during a visit to the headquarters of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) in Irajá, a district in northern Rio, at an event on integrated action against organized crime held alongside the state's acting governor, Ricardo Couto.
According to news site G1, the plan puts PRF officers on the roads and pairs them with camera images and intelligence data from Civitas, the monitoring platform run by Rio city hall, plus support from the state Military and Civil Police. It will initially cover four corridors: the Dutra highway (BR-116 South), the Washington Luís (BR-040), the Niterói-Manilha (BR-101 North) and the Arco Metropolitano, the ring road around the Rio metropolitan region.
A broader strategy
The website Poder360 reports that the task force expands an agreement reached on Thursday (17) between the federal government and the state administration. The strategy brings together the National Public Security Department (Senasp), the Federal Police, the PRF and Rio state forces to integrate policing, inspections, intelligence and investigations. The areas involved include Avenida Brasil and the Vermelha and Amarela expressways, as well as the approaches to the Port of Rio de Janeiro and Galeão international airport, targeting cargo and vehicle theft, fencing of stolen goods, and organizations that move weapons, drugs and criminal proceeds.
Timeline
The federal reinforcement comes after a month of cargo attacks on the same highways. On August 29, Military Police soldier Paulo Roberto dos Santos Ferreira Júnior, 36, was shot during an approach to a vehicle suspected of cargo theft and died of his wounds, according to newspaper O Globo. On Monday (14), a joint operation by the Civil Police and the PRF on the BR-040 and the Dutra, part of a task force grouping seven specialized police units, left one suspect dead and three under arrest. According to the investigation, they belong to a gang specialized in stealing cargo and robbing distribution centers, working in groups of up to 30 people, which is also under investigation for the officer's death.
Detective Vinícius Domingos, head of the Cargo Theft Police Division, told the paper where the stolen goods end up.
"The stolen goods go to Parque União and from there are spread to other states, like São Paulo. It is the biggest cargo theft gang. Not in the number of thefts, but in apparatus, weapons, violence."
The announcement comes less than 20 days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election on October 4. According to Poder360, after the Rio event Lula flew to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state, for a campaign rally at 7 p.m. The task force starts work on the four highway corridors; no date has been announced for extending it to the city's urban expressways.