Bicheiro Piruinha is acquitted by the Rio Courts of being accused of ordering the murder of a businessman

The Rio court acquitted bicheiro José Caruzzo Escafura, known as Piruinha, of the accusation of being responsible for the death of car dealer Natalino José do Nascimento Espínola. The trial was held this Thursday. In addition to the offender, his daughter, Monalizza Neves Escafura, and military police officer Jeckson Lima Pereira were also tried for the crime. The two were also acquitted by the jury. The information is from g1.

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With the decision, the preventive arrests of Piruinha and her daughter were revoked. The court also overturned precautionary measures imposed on the three defendants, such as the seizure of assets and valuables.

Trader Natalino José, known as Neto, was killed on July 23, 2021, in Vila Valqueire, in the West Zone of Rio. According to the Public Ministry of Rio (MPRJ), in the complaint, the crime was motivated by a debt of R $500,000 that he would have with the offender and his daughter. According to the MPRJ, the victim and Monalizza were partners in a venture that did not work out.

The problem would have started when Neto influenced Escafura and Monalizza to invest money in “works through contracts entered into with construction companies; and such an operation, much more than an investment, was a money laundering operation from the illicit activities of the criminal organization where the real operators and capital owners do not appear, but invest and profit through ‘oranges’ that return properties and reportable values”.

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At trial, the prosecutor argued that there was a lack of evidence of the defendants’ involvement in the crime and suggested that the defendants be acquitted.

Recently, other offenders have obtained favorable decisions in court. (see below)

The trial was scheduled for the 9th, but was rescheduled for this Thursday after the postponement was requested by the MP, who claimed there was a lack of time to analyze the addition of two other cases to Piruinha’s, that of the daughter and that of the PM. , who were tried together.

Piruinha participated in the trial via videoconference from a hospital bed. At 94 years old, due to health problems, he was under house arrest. He was not interrogated. The defense denied the involvement of the offender in the crime and alleged a lack of police investigation into the case.

PM Jeckson was interrogated and, during the trial, said that he did not participate in the crime and that he did not work for Piruinha. In the complaint, the agent was accused of carrying out the murder. During the session on the 9th, he was provisionally released after the expert confirmed that the car used in the crime did not belong to the police officer’s father, as was pointed out by the investigation.

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The defense of the bookseller’s daughter also denied Monalizza’s connection with the merchant’s death. She and her father were named, in the complaint, as those who ordered the murder. The investigations showed that the two had ordered several crimes against the merchant, including threats, extortion, misrepresentation and embezzlement (total loss of possession), up to murder.

Who is Piruinha?

Since the 1970s, Piruinha controlled gambling in the regions of Madureira, Cascadura, Abolição, Piedade, Inhaúma and Maria da Graça. He was among the 14 bankers arrested and convicted by judge Denise Frossard, of the 14th Criminal Court, in 1993, for formation of a gang or armed band. Piruinha and the other bicheiros received the maximum sentence of six years in prison.

In the same process, the bicheiros were responsible for drug trafficking and torture. But in the final arguments of the trial, the prosecutor asked for these crimes to be excluded due to lack of evidence. The sentence, however, was modified by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which reduced the sentence by half. Through appeals, lawyers managed to exclude the crime of an armed gang. Almost five years later, everyone was free.

Because he wasn’t linked to any samba school, like Castor de Andrade, for example, he didn’t have much visibility, but that didn’t mean he was considered any less violent. Parallel to the game, he explored other activities, such as motels in neighborhoods in the West Zone. The booker was also investigated for an alleged connection with a clandestine abortion ring.

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In an interview for the documentary “Vale o Escrito”, he revealed that he has been gambling for 80 years and is the father of 19 children. The offender had been under house arrest since December 2022, when he was hospitalized after suffering a fractured femur after falling in the prison bathroom.

Son died in 2017

In 2017, the bookmaker’s son, Haylton Carlos Gomes Escafura, aged 37, was shot dead at the Hotel Transamérica, on Avenida Gastão Senges, in Barra da Tijuca, West Zone of Rio. He was accompanied by Military Police soldier Franciene de Souza, who was also killed. The agent was from the Rocinha Pacification Police Unit (UPP).

He would have taken over his father’s business at the time, according to the Federal Police’s Black Ops operation report. Haylton had been arrested in June 2012, during Black Ops, accused of involvement with the Rio slot machine mafia. Sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison, he had spent eight months on the run from justice.

According to investigations at the time, Haylton and his gang used the sale of luxury cars to launder the money from the crime. At the time, musicians and football players were targeted by the police. The gang was accused of smuggling, illegal trade in precious stones, gang formation and currency evasion.

Offenders obtain favorable decisions

Rogério de Andrade

Rogério de Andrade’s request was granted by Minister Kassio Nunes Marques, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), who ordered, on the 18th, the removal of the electronic ankle monitor and revoked the nightly home confinement that was imposed on the bookkeeper. The misdemeanor faces charges of heading a criminal organization that dominates Jogo do Bicho, slot machines, bingos and casinos in the West Zone. He had already been trying in court, since the eve of Carnival, to be allowed to watch the samba school parade directly at the Sambadrome, which was not granted.

After the decision in favor of the bicheiro, Gustavo de Andrade, his son, also filed a request addressed to Minister Nunes Marques, six days later. He also asks for the removal of the electronic ankle monitor and the end of nighttime reclusion. Gustavo was preventively arrested after Operation Calígula, by the Federal Police and the Public Ministry of Rio, in August 2022, for allegedly being part of the leadership of the criminal organization led by Rogério de Andrade.

Captain Guimarães

On the 9th, criminal Ailton Guimarães Jorge, Captain Guimarães, patron of Vila Isabel, had his preventive home detention revoked, as shown by the Segredos do crime blog. The precautionary measures, however, were maintained for the bicheiro and the two accused of the murder of pastor Fábio de Aguiar Sardinha, shot at a gas station in São Gonçalo, on July 1, 2020. The three have to wear an ankle bracelet electronically and cannot have contact with witnesses in the process. They have already handed over their passports to the courts.

Adilsinho

In August 2023, judges from the 7th Criminal Chamber of the Rio Court of Justice revoked, on the 22nd, the temporary arrest warrant against Adilson Coutinho Oliveira, known as Adilsinho. He is identified as the leader of a criminal organization involved in gaming exploitation and the illegal cigarette trade in Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense. Recently, he became the target of a Civil Police operation investigating the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Marinho Crespo, shot dead in downtown Rio in broad daylight.