The sports betting market, known as “bets”, has been disputed by criminal factions and bicheiros throughout Brazil, who see in the niche an opportunity to maximize and even launder their profits.
Legalized in the country since 2018 and in the process of regulation this year, online betting has been used for illicit activities – including murders, arson and attacks on bookmakers – throughout the country, according to information from the newspaper “O Globo”.
In April, the Federal Police arrested two relatives of Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known as Marcola, leader of the PCC, for the faction’s involvement with bookmakers in Ceará. According to the investigation, Marcola’s nephew posted ads for the Fourbet platform on his social networks. Documents linked to financial transactions were also found during the arrest of Francisca Alves da Silva, Marcola’s sister-in-law.
In one of these documents, there was mention of Menesclau de Araújo Souza, appointed as responsible for the PCC’s accounting in Ceará. The investigation also found that Menesclau was involved in the management of physical units of the Fort Lottery in the state.
The PF became even more suspicious of the connection between the bets and the PCC after a police approach in 2022, when Marcola’s nephew was found in the car of Henrique Abraão Gonçalves da Silva, son of one of the managers of the Fort Lottery in Ceará, Cíntia Chaves Gonçalves.
PF delegate Igor César Conti Almeida, who indicted the quartet for criminal organization, wrote that there are “robust indications, too, of the practice of laundering money obtained illicitly” through betting platforms. The PF has not yet raised the total laundered, but R$ 301 million has been mapped in the bank accounts of more than 20 investigated.
In Ceará, the PCC disputes the control of bookmakers with CVs. In 2021, CV bosses went so far as to ban companies such as Loteria Fort and Fourbet from operating in their area of influence.
According to the state Public Prosecutor’s Office, the rivalry resulted in fires in bookmakers in Ceará. The MP attributes the attacks to the guidance of Douglas Honorato Alves, responsible for the business of the Rio de Janeiro faction in Ceará, currently wanted by the authorities.
Rio de Janeiro
Gambling has also become a target for the mafia that dominates jogo do bicho and slot machines in Rio de Janeiro. The bicheiro Rogério Andrade, for example, has been betting on the niche since 2020, as revealed in an email from one of his employees, found by the MP.
“When he has this, we will never again run the risk of the courts thinking that we are doing something illegal,” the message said.
When Andrade was arrested by the PF in 2022, agents seized a note citing a betting platform, “Heads Bet,” and the phrase “it’s ready.” Headquartered in Curaçao, a Caribbean tax haven, Heads Bet has 12,000 followers on Instagram and continues to operate.
The dispute over the dominance of bets resulted in the execution of lawyer Rodrigo Marinho Crespo, in February, in Rio. The MP considers that Crespo bothered “vested interests of an active criminal organization” in the online betting business after buying the domain of websites.
Rondônia
An operation carried out by the PF in 2021 in Rondônia identified that the manager of a betting site laundered money from CV drug trafficking in eight Brazilian states.
According to the inquiry, the money was injected into Leandro Blumer’s Rondo Esportes, and then returned to the gang members themselves in the form of “prizes.” At the height of the operation, the house paid almost R$ 13 million to bettors in just one week.
In one of the investigations, the PF identified that a shipment of 126 kg of cocaine generated payments of R$1.1 million made to the gang. According to the inquiry, the money was injected into Rondo Esportes, which even sponsored a soccer team and even opened a branch in Mato Grosso, before being suspended by the courts.
Arrested in 2021, Blumer is free on the charges. The defense claims that there is “perfect fairness of the activities” of Rondo Esportes, and said that the complaint is “mistaken and the result of natural ignorance” about the betting market.
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