The Penalty Police found 26 cell phones hidden in the walls of Benjamin de Moraes Prison, located in the Gericinó Complex, in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. A large quantity of drugs was also seized during the action carried out on Friday. The prison unit houses inmates linked to Comando Vermelho, one of the main criminal factions in the state.
The operation was named Operation Illicitus and aims to combat organized crime in the state prison system. According to the State Secretariat of Penalty Police of Rio de Janeiro, the searches in prisons were intensified in August, with integrated action from the Operational and Intelligence Sub-Secretariats, in addition to the General Inspectorate of the institution.
The objective of the operation, as stated by Seppen, is to dismantle communication between members of criminal factions who are imprisoned and those who remain free. The discovery of the cell phones hidden in the walls demonstrates the inmates' attempts to maintain contact with the outside world, even behind bars.
