Brazil police target leading crime group after brazen murder at São Paulo airport | Brazil

Police are investigating a brazen murder in the arrivals area of ​​Brazil's main airport, pursuing at least three lines of inquiry to track down the killers – and the possible masterminds of the shocking crime.

Antônio Vinicius Lopes Gritzbach, 38, was leaving São Paulo's international airport on Friday afternoon when two hooded men jumped out of a car and fired a hail of bullets. The brazen attack, captured on surveillance cameras, marked a dramatic escalation in criminal violence in the country.

Gritzbach, a former member of the First Capital Command (PCC) crime group, was hit by ten bullets and died on the spot.

Three bystanders were also hit. Uber driver Celso Araujo Sampaio de Novais, 41, was shot in the back and died hours later. The other two suffered less serious injuries: a contractor employee remains under observation in hospital, while a passenger has already been released.

“Public executions are nothing new for the PCC,” said Renato Sérgio de Lima, executive director of the Brazilian Forum for Public Security. “What stood out this time was the audacity of committing such a crime in a closely monitored area: the second largest airport in Latin America, where multiple law enforcement agencies are present.”

Prosecutors say Gritzbach, a former real estate agent, helped the criminal group launder 30 million reais (£4 million) from the international drug trade through real estate and gas station investments.

He also reportedly received 100 million reais (£13.6 million) from a PCC leader, Anselmo Becheli Santa Fausta, known as Cara Preta (Black Face), to invest in cryptocurrencies. In 2021, Fausta demanded it back, but Gritzbach reportedly did not comply. In the same year, Fausta and his bodyguard were murdered; Prosecutors alleged that Gritzbach ordered the crime. Meanwhile, the PCC is said to have put a 3 million reais (£407,381) bounty on his head.

Gritzbach, who was sentenced to death by the PCC, approached prosecutors and offered to reveal details of the gang's money laundering operations in return for a deal. On October 31, he expanded on his statement, claiming that police officers took bribes to protect gang members from investigation.

He was killed eight days later. The timing gave rise to the theory that police officers may have been involved in his death. What added to the suspicion was that Gritzbach had hired four police officers as bodyguards – illegal under Brazilian law – but they were absent during the attack, allegedly due to a car breakdown on the way to the airport.

On Tuesday, São Paulo's public security department announced the suspension of the four officers and four other officials who worked as security guards for Gritzbach.

A third hypothesis states that Gritzbach was killed because of a guilt.

“The death of this guy pleased a lot of people,” Detective Osvaldo Nico Gonçalves told the Brazilian newspaper Estadão. “We will follow the facts, regardless of whether they concern members of the civilian or military police,” he said.

Lima, the security expert, said the killing was further evidence that organized crime in Brazil had begun to reach the “extent” of Mexican cartels.

“The extent to which crime has infested the state and formal economy – with money laundering in real estate, fuel networks and cryptocurrencies – reaches Mexican levels. And that is deeply worrying,” he said.