The killings of convicted persons by criminal factions are not limited to violent executions. The dynamics following the homicides make these convictions even more brutal. In an effort to cover up crimes, eliminate traces and get rid of evidence, members of criminal factions even reduce corpses to dust.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Mato Grosso Civil Police Chief Caio Albuquerque, head of the Cuiabá Homicide and Personal Protection Police Station, said that this practice has become more common in the region since 2021 and is currently the frequent target of investigations in the police unit under his command.
“We have been seeing these disappearances of bodies mainly since 2021, with the majority of victims being subjected to a cruel ritual,” he said.
The chronology until the occultation
Before arriving at the so-called clandestine cemeteries, the victims – who, according to the delegate, are mostly rivals belonging to the enemy factions of the Comando Vermelho (CV), the organization that dominates the region – are exposed to intense suffering.
This is because there is a ritual followed by criminals. Popularly known as “criminal court”, this session involves psychological and physical torture, used by faction members to decide the target’s fate.
“These people are sentenced to death with the approval of the imprisoned leaders. Then, the criminals resort to decapitation, amputation and dismemberment to allow the bodies to be hidden in places that, in most cases, we are unable to locate,” detailed the delegate.
Fire, forests and ditches
After dismembering the bodies to make their identification difficult, the actors dispose of the victims in deserted places. As the delegate pointed out, areas of dense forest in rural areas, far from large urban centers, and abandoned houses are the preferred places for the creation of clandestine cemeteries.
Images recorded by the criminals themselves, then published on the Internet, reveal scenes of extreme violence. In some cases, victims are forced to dig their own graves before being executed.
Although clandestine burial appears to be the most common outcome of investigations, Police Chief Caio Albuquerque explained that fire is also used to dispose of bodies. According to him, criminals resort to incineration of their victims, a form of carbonization, a kind of irregular cremation, in order to erase the traces.
Make it difficult to discover the crime
The police chief explained that the main objective of clandestine cemeteries is to prevent the discovery of the homicide once the body is found. According to him, even when there are complaints filed by witnesses or family members, the investigation ends up being hampered by the lack of information about the victim or the absence of traces at the crime scene.
“When there is no location of a body, there is no immediate communication of the homicide. The investigation depends on information from the family, in particular to note the disappearance,” he explained.
Faced with this practice, researchers are faced with a series of challenges. The most complex of these is proving that there was a homicide even without locating the body.
“To prove that the execution took place without having the body, there must be witnesses who witnessed a possible kidnapping or execution, which is rare, because witnesses are usually afraid of reprisals.”
Albuquerque stressed that, despite their complexity, investigations exist and can evolve, leading to the conviction of perpetrators and preventing this practice from distorting homicide statistics.
Discoveries
In October this year, the RJ Civil Police (PCERJ) discovered, in Morro do Jordão, a clandestine cemetery in the middle of a forest. On site, investigators discovered human skeletons.
The police action, supported by the Special Resources Coordination (Core) and the Fire Brigade, also led to the discovery of a 30 meter deep well. Evidence suggests the hole was used to dump the bodies of the gang’s victims.
Earlier this month, a PCMT investigation uncovered a “drug cemetery” also used by CV members working in the Confresa and Araguaia area.
At the scene, in a wooded area located approximately 22 km from the urban perimeter, two buried bodies were found. One of them had his head detached from his body.
The discovery was made possible thanks to the investigative investigations carried out by the Specialized Police Station for Thefts and Thefts (Derf) of Confresa which, in recent months, has collected information, received complaints, analyzed suspicious movements and consolidated intelligence elements that revealed the possible existence of a spawning point in the area.
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