Rio’s Drug Gangs, Squeezed by Recession, Go on Hijacking Spree
- Crime rings are diversifying from drugs and street crimes
- Electronics firms using armored trucks, one called ‘The T-Rex’
Police helicopters fly over the Mare slum complex during it's occupation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, March 30, 2014.
Photographer: Leo Correa/AP PhotoThis article is for subscribers only.
One night in late June, four black cars intercepted a truck on a highway 25 miles out of Rio de Janeiro. The hijackers, in well-practiced precision, disabled the truck’s tracking system, trained their rifles on the driver and ordered him to follow them back to the city to a favela named Chapadao.
There, the hijackers quickly transferred the truck’s load -- goods like electronics and textiles worth a total of 1.4 million reais ($440,000) -- to a waiting vehicle. The transfer complete, it disappeared in the hillside neighborhood’s winding, narrow streets crammed with small brick homes, according to the police report.