Thefts and cell phone thefts continued to increase in the central region of São Paulo, four months after the dispersal of drug addicts who until May this year occupied a section of Rua dos Protestantes, in Santa Ifigênia, a fixed point in Cracolândia.
Between May and September, the police districts most affected by the drug group recorded 3,468 incidents of theft or theft of devices, which is 7% more than the 3,255 registrations for the same period in 2024. These are the following districts: 3rd DP (Campos Elíseos) and 77th DP (Santa Cecília).
The increase in the two districts was greater than the cumulative increase in the same events across the entire capital, which was 3%. During the same period, the city went from 67,136 thefts and cell phone thefts to 68,989, according to data from the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP).
In the second half of May, Rua dos Protestantes was empty after months of occupation by users, who dispersed to different points in the central region. In response, the administration of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) expanded the network of services for drug users throughout the center, previously concentrated on the street where the hotbed of drug use was located.
The flow of drug addicts on Rua dos Protestantes began to decrease in March, when a fire broke out in a building located about a hundred meters from Cracolândia, on Rua dos Gusmões, identified by the municipal management as one of the drug distribution points in the center.
The same month as the dispersal, there was an increase in thefts in the area. Only in the 3rd DP did the number of theft complaints increase by 15%.
Due to the presence of users, the areas of the two police districts are part of the specific surveillance created in 2023 by the State Government and the City Hall for joint public safety actions.
Six months after the dispersal of the flow on Rua dos Protestantes, the Tarcísio and Ricardo Nunes (MDB) administrations announced a drop in the crime rate in the center of the capital, referring to total thefts and thefts, without specifying incidents involving cell phones.
In November, the governor declared that Cracolândia no longer existed in the city, while acknowledging that there would still be drug use on the streets.
In both districts, between May and September this year, there was a 22% drop in thefts – from 1,672 to 1,304 – compared to the same months of 2024. Thefts, however, maintain an upward trend, with 2% more reports of these types of incidents than in 2024, during the same period.
Telephone incidents in the center have continued despite the dispersal of Cracolândia, because they are committed by criminals unrelated to the open drug scene, according to Guaracy Mingardi, criminal analyst and member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum. “They are specialized in this type of delinquency, they live in the center’s guest houses and have access to the stolen device recovery ecosystem.”
For Lieutenant Colonel Rodrigo García Villardi, general coordinator of the CICC (Integrated Command and Control Center) of the Secretariat of Public Security, what explains the upward trend in thefts and cell phone thefts in the center is the greater circulation of people throughout the region after the dispersal of users. “Half of the thefts (recorded in the center) are committed in closed places, such as metro stations, buses and shops. With an increase in travel in the region, it is natural that there is this variation.”
Furthermore, the lieutenant-colonel attributes the increase in incidents involving cell phones to the activities of the cycling gang, responsible for a third of cases in the center.
When contacted, the Nunes administration did not comment on the figures cited for cell phone thefts and highlighted a drop of up to 42% in incidents between 2022 and 2025 (May to September). The administration said these numbers are the result of integrated work with state government, supported by health care, social assistance and enhanced public safety.
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