The next Secretary of Public Security of São Paulo (SSP), Delegate Osvaldo Nico Gonçalves, known as Nico, has until now served as Executive Secretary of the Department and has become an interim occupant while Guilherme Dirit, who left the position on Monday (the first), was in the House of Representatives to report on the Antifaction PL. Nico was seen as Derrett’s favorite candidate to inherit the position.
Behind the scenes, the fact that he had extensive street experience and was highly regarded among his lieutenants, as well as the fact that he was one of the most famous faces in the São Paulo police force, swayed in Nico’s favour.
Nico has more than 40 years of work in the Civil Police in São Paulo. He gained national notoriety in April 2005, when he watched a Libertadores match between Sao Paulo and Quilmes in the stands of Morumbi Stadium, and arrested an Argentine national team defender for a racist insult against a Sao Paulo player.
Throughout his career, the delegate has been responsible for the police arrest sector and has worked on high-profile cases. In 2001, he participated in the arrest of Chilean Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena, the leader of the kidnapping of journalist Washington Oliveto. He was also present at the arrest of journalist Pimenta Neves in 2011, and doctor Roger Abdel Masih in 2014.
Another symbolic case was the arrest of Fabricio Quiroz, a former advisor to Flavio Bolsonaro, in June 2020. Before dawn, Nico and his team smashed down the gate of the home of lawyer Frederic Wassef, in Atibaia, and found Quiroz sleeping in one of the bedrooms in the property. The prosecutor read the arrest warrant and it was up to the São Paulo police chief to take the new prisoner along the 72-kilometre route to the headquarters of the Department of Homicide and Protection (DHPP), in the center of the capital São Paulo.
The secretary started working for the police as a prisoner in 1979. Shortly thereafter, he took a competitive exam and became a detective. “I spent many years as a researcher and only succeeded in the delegate competition in 1992,” he told O GLOBO in 2020.
He also owns a chain of restaurants in São Paulo and other cities in the state. The website of the company controlling the projects, called SalaVip Group, indicates that the chain began in 1992, when Nico and his wife, Sandra Delboski, opened the first unit of a pizzeria in the Ipiranga neighbourhood.
The first branch was opened in 1995, in the city of São Caetano do Sul, and in 1997 in the Moema neighborhood, southern region of São Paulo. Later, they also opened units in other municipalities, such as São Bernardo do Campo and Guaruja. In addition to the pizzeria, the group also includes an Italian restaurant, a bar and a burger joint, all in the Ipiranga neighbourhood.