Marcinho VP

Processed and convicted for drug trafficking and homicides, Marcinho was arrested at the end of August 1996 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in an operation led by police commissioner José Carlos Pereira Guimarães, then a member of the Grupo Astra and head of the 5th Metropolitan Regional Division (Metropol 5) of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State.^[3] The officer spent four months investigating Marcinho's whereabouts. At the time, the arrest was reported by the press, leading the then governor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcello Alencar, to apologize to the then governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Antônio Britto, for not having informed the state's police about the operation conducted by the Rio officers.^[4]

Even while incarcerated, according to police and judicial authorities, Marcinho continued to lead the Comando Vermelho and order homicides and other crimes. One of the alleged victims of his orders was his namesake – Márcio Amaro de Oliveira, also known as Marcinho VP, the leader of the Comando Vermelho in the Dona Marta favela in Botafogo (South Zone).^[5] In 2003, while detained at the Dr. Serrano Neves Penitentiary (Bangu 3) in Rio's West Zone, he revealed details of the drug trafficking scheme to journalist Caco Barcellos, who documented them in the book Abusado. These statements allegedly angered the Marcinho VP from Complexo do Alemão, who, imprisoned in Bangu 1, supposedly made threats to force the other to remain silent.

Prison guards even intercepted a telegram, allegedly sent by Marcinho from Alemão to the other, with the message: "shut up or you'll end up in the ditch."^[1] Days later, the Marcinho from Dona Marta was killed by strangulation and abandoned in a trash bin in gallery A3. After the new wave of attacks in Rio de Janeiro began on November 20, 2010, Marcinho VP was transferred to another prison, this time to Porto Velho, Rondônia, along with another trafficker known as Elias Maluco. On November 26, 2010, Marcinho VP's wife was arrested, accused of being the trafficker's "homing pigeon" during intimate visits. The two are suspected of ordering the attacks in Rio de Janeiro and are among the criminals considered the most dangerous in the country.^[6]

Married to Marcia Gama, he is the father of six children and grandfather of two grandchildren.^[3] Two of Marcinho VP's children are the rapper Oruam and the gospel music singer Débora Gama.^[7][8] Débora Gama has stated that some of her songs are composed by Marcinho VP, who writes the songs and delivers them to his daughter via letter.^[8]

Marcinho completed his high school education while in prison. Considered self-taught in the field of law, he has published three books: O Direito Penal do Inimigo. Verdades e Posições (2017), Preso de Guerra (2022), and Execução Penal Banal Comentada (2023). Since 2024, he has been a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras do Cárcere ("Brazilian Academy of Letters of the Prison"), occupying seat number 1, whose patron is Graciliano Ramos.^[9]