Illegal markets, protection rackets and Organized Crime in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

By dealing with a variety of criminal situations that are qualified as "Organized Crime", this article presents the evolution of the main networks of illegal markets in Rio de Janeiro - "jogo do bicho" (the animal game - an illegal gambling pastime in Brazil), the drug trade, and "political commodities" - , in order to argue that the sales and acquisition of these political commodities (such as extortions, corruption, sales of protection, access to information on police operations etc.) constitutes one of the key concepts in understanding the social accumulation of violence in the city.