The Mafias Behind Sand Trafficking in Latin America

Just 50 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous beaches, one of the city’s most powerful gangsters found a fortune to be made in sand. 

Before he turned himself in to the authorities in December 2023, Luis Antonio da Silva Braga, alias “Zinho”, headed the Bonde do Zinho militia. And beyond its criminal interests in Rio, the group had branched out to the nearby municipality of Seropédica, allegedly working with a Rio de Janeiro state legislator to use floating dredgers, trucks, tractors, backhoes, and silos to illegally scoop up huge amounts of sand.

Satellite photos show the extent of the extraction between about 2011 and 2017.

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