Elias Maluco
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23 May 1966
Elias Maluco | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Elias Maluco being introduced by the police after his arrest in 2002 | |
| Born | Elias Pereira da Silva 23 May 1966 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Died | 22 September 2020 (aged 54) Catanduvas Federal Penitentiary, Catanduvas, Paraná, Brazil |
| Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
| Occupation | Drug trafficker |
| Known for | Murder of Tim Lopes |
Elias Pereira da Silva (23 May 1966 – 22 September 2020), also known as Elias Maluco (in English: Crazy Elias), was one of Rio de Janeiro's most powerful drug traffickers. Maluco, a member of the criminal faction Comando Vermelho, commanded drug trafficking in thirty slums near Complexo do Alemão and Penha, Brazil. He was accused of killing over sixty people.[1]
Elias Maluco was held responsible for the waves of violence that shook Rio de Janeiro between December 2006 and November 2010.[2][3] He was arrested on 19 September 2002, after a three-month manhunt.[1][4][5]
On 2 June 2002, journalist Tim Lopes was kidnapped by a group of drug dealers led by Elias[4] and was taken to the Favela da Grota slum in Complexo do Alemão. Lopes was tortured and killed[6] after being found with a camera which he was using for his reporting on sexual abuse of minors and drug trafficking in clubs in the Vila Cruzeiro favela.[7][8] According to testimonies from drug traffickers linked to Maluco, who was arrested a few days later by the police, Maluco had tortured Lopes by burning his eyes with a cigarette and hitting him with a katana,[6][7] and later burned his body with tires and gasoline[7] in a method of killing known among locals as a "microwave."[9] After intense searches, the charred remains of Lopes' body were found on 12 June 2002, in a clandestine cemetery in the Favela da Grota.[6]
The crime had international repercussions[10] and motivated demonstrations against violence and defense of press freedom in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil was named as the third most dangerous country for professionals in this field in the Americas by the Inter-American Press Association Impunity Commission (IAPA).[7]
Capture
On 16 September 2002, after a three-month manhunt led by the Rio de Janeiro security summit,[4][6] the police launched "Operation Sufoco" and surrounded Complexo do Alemão with the aim to capture Maluco. After 50 hours of searching, Maluco was captured in Favela da Grota without resisting arrest.[8] His words, at the time of his arrest, were "I lost, man. Just don't humiliate me", referring to the police's eagerness to arrest him.[1][5]
In December 2002, Elias Maluco was sentenced to 13 years in prison for trafficking crimes and association to drug trafficking, in a process involving the singer Belo.[11] On 10 November 2003, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the 23rd Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro for the same crimes in the context of another process.[11] On 25 May 2005, he was sentenced to 28.5 years in prison by the 1st Rio de Janeiro Jury Tribunal for the crimes of triple-qualified homicide, conspiracy, and concealment of a body in the case of the murder of Tim Lopes.[4][12]
Maluco was imprisoned in a Brazilian prison complex following his arrest[12] until 4 January 2007, when he was transferred to the Federal Prison in Catanduvas, Paraná. He was transferred with eleven other heads of the criminal factions Comando Vermelho and Terceiro Comando, who were accused of arson and attacking police stations and military police posts on 28 December 2006, in Rio de Janeiro. These attacks resulted in the death of nineteen people.[2]
After the start of a new wave of violence in Rio de Janeiro on 21 November 2010, Maluco and one other, who according to police intelligence, had ordered the attacks, were transferred on 25 November 2010, to the Federal Penitentiary in Porto Velho, Rondônia.[3] Finally, on 18 August 2011, Maluco was transferred again, this time to the Federal Prison in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul.[13]
