Milton Leite and 13 others become defendants over suspected ties to the PCC

This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).

A São Paulo court has accepted charges filed by the state prosecutors’ office and made defendants of former city councilor Milton Leite and 13 other people, all under suspicion of links to the PCC, Brazil’s largest criminal gang (Primeiro Comando da Capital). The case investigates the gang’s infiltration of public transportation in the city of São Paulo, according to the Brazilian newspaper Diário do Litoral.

Leite has been held since September. His arrest, initially temporary, was converted into preventive detention. With the decision, the former councilor and the other accused will face a criminal case, a stage in which the charges will be examined by the courts.

Public bus service carries millions of passengers every day and depends on government contracts. That is why suspicion that a criminal faction has reached this sector directly affects those who ride buses in the city, both in their wallets and in their safety. The case also draws attention because it involves a well-known figure in São Paulo politics, which shows the closeness that the investigation attributes between organized crime and the public sector.

The charges accepted by the court address how the PCC allegedly infiltrated the transportation system. Being a defendant does not mean being convicted: from now on, prosecutors must sustain the accusations in the case, and the accused have the right to defend themselves.

Infiltration of organized crime into public services is not unique to São Paulo. In other capitals, such as Rio de Janeiro, the activity of criminal groups in essential services has also been the subject of investigations, which reinforces the debate over the oversight of contracts and control over who operates services used daily by the population.

The case now proceeds in São Paulo’s state courts, with the 14 defendants responding to the charges presented by the prosecutors’ office.

Reporting from Diário do Litoral (p. 5, São Paulo/SP).