He killed the father of two girls and disappeared. But the police found him online. Brazilian gangsta slang, Wittgenstein and online chats mixed in the pursuit of the #1 criminal in one of Brazil´s murder capitals.
By Alexandre de Santi
Illustrations by Aluísio Cervelle
Translated by Carla Ruas
Huge thanks to Cristine Kist
1. Only tha strong playas survive ! Not fo nothing ! just sayin
Around 5 a.m. on a Thursday, a red supermini car entered Dr. Tore Kratz Street in Alvorada, a city in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, and parked near house number 101. The driver, a big man, stepped out and stood next to the vehicle’s door. A smaller guy exited the passenger side, slammed the door behind him and walked towards the front gate of a house belonging to Andre Batista Soares da Silva. He was carrying a silver 9mm pistol.
In the midst of that dark, cold morning of September 26th, 2013, the gunman called out to the house’s owner. “What’s up nigga, you think I’m fucking around?”, he said, once he spotted Andre walking in his direction. He then drew out his pistol and shot Andre 15 times, right in front of a group of kids who were drinking cachaça nearby. With the victim on the ground, the killer turned around and walked back to the car. “This one is gone. Dead,” said the big man, who witnessed the scene, as he also stepped back into the vehicle. They left in a hurry.
The commotion woke up the entire neighborhood, Jardim Algarve, one of the most violent in Alvorada. Family members rushed to Andre to try to rescue him, but he died on the spot from internal bleeding in the chest and abdomen. “Do you see this, kids? You keep bringing these drugs here and now they´ve killed the wrong guy,” said a woman, as the police arrived at the scene of the crime. Andre was 33. He had two daughters, ages 11 and 4, and no criminal record.
The cruelty of Andre’s death angered neighbors and family members, since, as far as anyone knew, he had no direct involvement with drug trafficking. But inside Alvorada’s 1st Police Precinct, there was little time for these considerations. A few hours after Andre’s death, officers arrested five individuals for running a nearby boca de fumo, literally a “smoking mouth,” a crackspot, a location where drugs are sold in the open. The same guys were thought to have committed four turf-war murders — but none of them were connected to Andre’s execution. Later, around 11 a.m., there was yet another murder: a 36-year-old man in Maria Regina neighborhood had been shot three times. There were 95 murders in Alvorada in 2013, making it the most violent city in state Rio Grande do Sul, the Brazilian state that borders Uruguay. Between 2008 and 2012, the city had an average of 70.9 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants — in comparison, Rio de Janeiro had 21.5 deaths in the same time frame.
Local detective Mauricio Barcellos had received special training from the FBI to tackle the great number of investigations that he and his department were now faced with. “I learned different techniques. But they investigate 30 murders per year — and I have 10 murder cases per month, in addition to attempted murders,” he said. On that September 26th, for instance, it was not yet noon when Barcellos had to open two new murder investigations, in addition to dealing with the arrest of the five drug dealers. Still, the circumstances of Andre’s case — which had every reason to be treated just like the other 11 murders being investigated by the precinct that month — did not seem ordinary even to the city’s investigators. “He took out the guy in his own house, that coward,” said one of the officers, summing up the general outrage.
In the days following Andre’s death, several witnesses told investigators that the killer was Cristiano dos Santos Gonçalves, nicknamed Fumaça (literally “Smoke”). At 21, he was in charge of a boca de fumo in Jardim Algarve neighborhood, and was already well-known to narcotics cops in the city. In 2009, when he was still a juvenile offender, Fumaça was investigated for drug trafficking, bodily injury, receiving stolen goods and illegal possession of a weapon. He was indicted for drug trafficking in 2012.
Fumaça was seen on Tore Kratz Street several times after Andres’ murder. Whether on a motorcycle or inside a silver car, he intimidated witnesses to prevent them from snitching to the police. He always carried a gun during his visits. According to testimonies from local residents, Fumaça had an ancient feud with Andre’s brother, but the reasons for the score-settling were never entirely made clear. Witnesses also identified the driver of the red getaway car as Jardel Fogaça Trevisan, a corpulent, bald man.
Fumaça and Jardel became public enemies numbers one and two in Alvorada.
2. We make tha rules……..
Several weeks before the morning of September 26th, 2013, Fumaça seemed more concerned with writing messages on social media than wandering around Alvorada in the middle of the night with a gun. In August, he updated his Facebook status 19 times, mostly with enigmatic messages, sending words of wisdom to his followers.
“Where tha bills is comin from iz none of yo bidnizz.. thats how it iz” he published on August 1st, using the deconstructive prose typical of Alvorada’s streets - the Brazilian gangsta slang. A few days later, something disturbed Fumaça. He posted four consecutive status updates on his own wall, addressing a recipient who has never been identified by the police.
August 5th, 2013
Only tha strong playas survive !
Not fo nothing ! just sayinTha fall is fo pimps n th rise is fo God
and tha humiliated is gonna be praised!
Just sayinLoyalty is an ungrateful biatch who kisses you
n hugs you n steals from you n kills you!
Just fuckin sayina blowjob is like a cold cup o water
ya don’t say no hahaha just sayin
As August continued, so did Fumaça’s cryptic mood and low engagement rate — an average of two likes per post. On the 14th, he published another one of his nuggets of wisdom.
August 14th, 2013
Yo I could be wrong but I is right
I is right cuz I is wrong but I is wrong cuz I could be right
but I is wrong cuz it aint nuthin but right. Just sayin
And then he went silent.
Cristiano wasn’t nicknamed “smoke”, by coincidence. He had a talent for vanishing into thin air. Since his last Facebook update, Fumaça had disappeared from social media, and there was no sign of him, other than his intimidating visits to Jardim Algarve neighborhood shortly after Andre’s murder.
While Fumaça was offline, the 24th Military Police Battalion’s Special Operations Squad received a tip saying that he was involved in Andre’s murder. Police officers routinely patrolled Jardim Algrave’s alleys for flagrant drug trafficking (for which the region is notorious), but now they focused on one end of Avenue Zero Hora, where the dealer was famous and had been known to hang out. The investigation was still ongoing, with the cops monitoring the area every day, hoping for a lucky break. The problem was that without arrest or search warrants, they were not allowed to approach suspects unless they were carrying illegal weapons on the street or engaged in drug trafficking activities. Nor were the cops allowed to search the houses on Avenue Zero Hora, even though they were nearly certain that they would find Fumaça and his crew in one of them.
Inside the precinct house, the investigation moved forward. Jardel, Fumaça’s accomplice, was called in to testify and stated that he, Jardel, was innocent. But he did give police some crucial information: he said Fumaça did not have a permanent address. Although this information was already known to the police, his testimony was essential to justify a judicial request to take Fumaça into temporary police custody. “This is the kind of thing that can bring someone down. If you are innocent, there is no need to be in hiding,” said Inspector Jones Talai, one of the investigators in charge of the case. On November 6th, police obtained an arrest warrant for Fumaça.
With the court authorization in hand, cops now intensified daily rounds at Jardim Algarve. But the local terrain did not help. Avenue Zero Hora ends in a slum, which is bordered by a ditch filled with sewage and garbage. Since drug dealers have established their rule of most of the local community (through bullying, empathy, or money), individuals like Fumaça have a strong network of scouts. You can only access the spot where Fumaça was hiding by two routes — Avenue Zero Hora and 19th Street — and informants can actually see visitors coming from hundreds of yards away. To make matters worse, the avenue is badly paved, with several stretches of dirt road. Every car that approaches can be spotted well in advance by the cloud of dust announcing its arrival. Police intelligence often supplied uniformed patrols with valuable information regarding Fumaça’s location, but cops were easily seen by scouts, who quickly informed the rest of their network. Whenever a police officer managed to reach the exact spot where Fumaça was supposedly hiding, he was already gone.
On a sunny afternoon in early November, just over a month after Andre’s murder, four officers of the 24th Battalion parked in one of the adjacent streets near Avenue Zero Hora. Three of them continued trailing on foot, leaving one behind to guard the car, and snuck into the alley. From a distance, they finally saw Fumaça, wearing a Grêmio soccer jersey, a blue cap, shorts and flipflops, standing next to two other people. Cops immediately made a run for it, trying to catch him.
When Fumaça saw the policemen running toward him, dressed in uniforms, combat boots and carrying guns, he ran off with an accomplice. The third person in the group, perhaps a customer, froze on the spot. Fumaça, with his slender figure, was able to crawl between houses, throw himself into the open sewer ditch and continue running with water up to his shins, kicking trash that was floating by. In about 20 seconds he was on the other side of the slum, making his way into another neighborhood, Timbaúva, where he was also able to find shelter. Officers watched the suspects’ resourcefulness without being able to compete with the sleek agility of boys who had spent their whole lives running in those alleys. They saw him disappear into the landscape, yet again, before they could even reach the ditch. The third member of the group was soon released, since no drugs or weapons were found on him.
In his testimony, Jardel claimed to have been in a nightclub at the time of the crime, a story confirmed by the woman he had met for the date. But when police inspector Jones Talai pulled out Jardel’s criminal record as a routine procedure, he discovered something curious: Jardel should have been at home on the night of September 26th, serving out his sentence of house arrest for a robbery he had committed in 2009. According to the judicial system, Jardel shouldn’t have been in the club or serving as a killer’s getaway driver. There is only one place that a person under house arrest should be at night: in his own home. Acting on this new information, on November 13th, the police obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was captured on the same day. But even in prison, he did not snitch on Fumaça.
Fumaça’s friend’s loyalty and his own successive victories over the police force appeared to have given him some confidence. After three months of online silence, he went back to posting on Facebook and indicated concern about the possibility of police wiretaps.
November 19th, 2013
……..one day brother said when ya got shit goin on
count on me cuz if I don’t help ya no one will ……..lots o homies think I’m fucked …
they don’t know dat I betta… than most….
……..shit here is all tapped…..
On the 25th, the 1st Police Precinct concluded its inquiry and requested an indictment of Fumaça for murder. Officers took turns patrolling Avenue Zero Hora under disguise. The order was to keep watch whenever there was free time from other police work. And every time police cars left the station for any reason, they were ordered to patrol the streets of Jardim Algarve in search of any sign of the suspect. Cops even dressed up as postmen in order to walk around the neighborhood undetected. But these efforts were unsuccessful.
Two days after being formally charged with the crime, Fumaça started giving hints that he had fled toward the state’s coastline. But even though he was on the run, he rarely missed an opportunity to have fun, updating his Facebook timeline frequently around the end of November.
…..I’m outta hereeee
…..worst nightmare is sittin thru dis prison sentence….
but I know soon gonna be in tha slum dealin wit my shit…
gonna fuck around have some fun….……capao on fire…..no words
…..fuckin hate to be on tha beach on my own
…… fuck it its all good …..
Police officers headed for the coast, trying to catch Fumaça on the beach. They spent two days on the beaches of Capão da Canoa and Pinhal, discovering only months later that Fumaça had been on neither of them: he was on a smaller beach called Magistério, where he stayed put.
In November, Fumaça published 44 times on Facebook. But he slowed down in early December. He seemed weary of life on the run.
December 13th, 2013
……..its all gonna work out soon gonna be alright again
shit gonna pass is just a phaze……..….im getin outta here goin fuckin crazy……
But he soon returned to full speed, and by the end of 2013, he had written 54 posts. Investigators, who had been aware of his busy timeline, began monitoring Fumaça’s life through the social network with greater attention. They even asked Facebook to help them by releasing the location of the IP addresses of computers used by Fumaça to post online. The company did cooperate, but since the crime happened in the smartphone era, all they found out was that he was posting updates from a mobile phone, without obtaining a precise location. Although the suspect wasn’t seen out on the streets, it was possible to track all his movements online.
December 21st, 2013
…..crime pays for ya dreamz….n ya pay a price for dat….
December 24th, 2013
….for..crime …it all got..fucked up…
In early 2014, police still had no idea of his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Fumaça was enjoying life: many months later police found out that he was alternating between five different houses, sheltered by people who offered him a place to sleep.
January 12th, 2014
……..we aint against rules cuz as far as I know
……..we make tha rules……..
3. ….feelin angry n hate
sumthin fucked up happened last nite………
His timeline continued with the same pattern of ostentatious boasting, encrypted messages, and marijuana references, until early February, when something disturbed him. Fumaça posted at 1:09pm:
February 3rd
….feelin angry n hate
sumthin fucked up happened last nite…………..you gotta appreciate mofo..
Throughout the night, another two posts appeared that were out of sync with his timeline’s usual party vibe:
February 4th
….aint no stuntman here n bullet aint fake… just sayin ..
…we got stuff just like de police …..
Late that morning, he posted a verse by MC Magrinho, a Brazilian Funk singer, from the song Ya call me pothead:
February 4th
……ya call me pothead n I call ya slut I gonna beat ya
n bitch is gonna like it…..
The lyrics would have gone unnoticed among many other funk references that appeared on the fugitive’s Facebook page, but against the backdrop of the previous posts, this last update gave the police a clue that Fumaça was going through some sort of conflict. The statement suggested that he was having a disagreement with a woman.
Shortly after midnight, Regiane Vedoy was sitting next to a friend on the sidewalk near 71 Comendador Coruja Lane, in Alvorada. A man walked down the unpaved street — located about 1 mile from Avenue Zero Hora — pulled out a gun, and shot her in the face. Regiane died instantly. Her friend was also shot, but survived. On the same night, Fumaça drew out his phone to write some updates.
February 5th
…….once a dog…?
……ya laugh wit me gone n ya cry wit me close…….
Weeks later, Fumaça would be formally charged with Regiane’s killing. The score-settling, the details of which remain unclear to police, seems to have upset the drug dealer. On the same day of the crime, he continued posting on Facebook throughout the afternoon:
February 5th
…..fo real feelin sick..
………..gotta shower..
Minutes later, Fumaça returned to his timeline feeling clean and proud. He published a selfie in a seductive pose, wearing a red cap, diamond earring, and gold chain and watch. Eleven people liked the post.
Inspector Jones Talai followed the updates with both police and academic interest. In 1999 he had obtained a degree in Philosophy from Pelotas Catholic University, concentrating on the work of Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who was famous for his work in philosophy of language. In Talai’s final paper for the degree, Wittgenstein II: Language Games Theory, he wrote about the author’s thought process in the book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. In the first phase of Wittgenstein’s career, he had attempted to solve philosophical problems through the analysis of language, proposing a separation between speech and the facts or subject described in the speech — what he called “picture theory of meaning.” For Wittgenstein, the lack of understanding between people could be explained by the distance that exists between real facts and discourses. Speech suffers from the difficulty that people have in relying on logic to ensure universal understanding of their arguments. In other words, Wittgenstein sought a universally accessible essence of language, which would allow problems of communication to be solved between intellectuals, and between regular folks as well.
Many years later, Wittgenstein, traumatized after serving in World War I, was apparently compelled by this trauma to change directions. He renounced his search for the essence of language and began to argue that the meanings of words come from the social context of each person — that is, that there is no universal, decontextualized basis for understanding. Wittgenstein called this theory “language games.” Talai’s paper described this thought process and evolution. “There is a police jargon that is born out of police work. And there is funk language that is born from the streets,” said the inspector, exemplifying how Wittgenstein can be applied to daily life.
Between 2004 and 2010, Talai worked as a professor at Theological Seminary Egmont Machado Krischke (SETEK), in the Brazilian city Porto Alegre, where he taught ethics, history of theology and systematic theology. But life among intellectuals and books turned out to be quite boring. “I got sick of academic life. I lost the boner for it. It wasn’t leading me anywhere,” he says. Inspired by an admittedly juvenile fantasy, Talai sought work in the police force. He wanted to be an investigator. “It is an activity that has no routine, but one that requires discipline, method and creativity.” He joined the police force in 2012.
When Talai saw the photo of Fumaça and his flashy gold watch on his computer screen, the inspector realized he was chasing a cocky, flirtatious and partying kid. Since the police hadn’t been able to see him in person for four months, he realized it was time to try something new by using street slang. He decided to create a fake Facebook profile, pretending to be a woman, in order to seduce — and capture — the fugitive. But for the plan to be a success, Talai would follow Wittgenstein. His lady character would only be credible if she was perceived as real. There was no room for linguistic reductionism. The inspector would have to communicate in Fumaça’s language.
Talai began by searching for pictures of hot blondes on Google. He found a seductive selfie and used it to create a profile on Facebook. He chose to name his character Lúcia Prates. Talai figured that Fumaça would unconsciously take a liking to a beautiful girl who had the same name as his mother. Lucinha (she was given a nickname) would be 24 years of age, a little more than Fumaça, so that she would be a little more daring than the younger girls who surrounded the dealer, and who were usually only interested in fancy parties he threw with drug money. The inspector feared Fumaça would investigate Lúcia’s past, so he selected her home town as Santa Maria, about 180 miles from Alvorada. That is how he would explain that Lúcia had few ties with the Jardim Algarve neighborhood.
With Lucinha’s profile online, the first thing Talai did was call out 15 of his own friends on Facebook’s chat and ask them a favor: he wanted them to interact with Lucinha. And he made sure that they all lived miles away and in other states, just in case there was some kind of retaliation if the plan failed. On February 8th, a Saturday, three days after Regiane’s death, Inspector Talai published the character’s first status update:
This Raimundos show is awesome, smoke everywhere
There was no response. An hour later, he wrote a justification for the fact that Lucinha had no social network history — which also worked as bait for Fumaça.
February 8th
I didn’t want this Facebook shit but couldn’t resist
Talai’s network started to work, as three people liked the post. One responded. Lucinha posted 10 times in February. But before addressing Fumaça, Inspector Jones Talai had to build up the character. He began by creating an image of a young party girl:
February 9th
Weekend almost ending Sniff sniff
Throughout that month, Talai took the time to study Fumaça’s interests on Facebook. He researched the lyrics of Brazilian Funk artists like Mc Güime, Mc Daleste, Mc Bola, Valesca Popozuda and Mc Pocahontas, all of whom preached ostentation, a theme dear to Fumaça’s heart. “I could see they supported hedonistic values. They were narcissistic to the extreme,” said Talai. The inspector was particularly interested in the frequent use of the word “repression,” a term from classical psychoanalysis used to describe the mechanism of suppression of unconscious thoughts. For Freud, ideas can submerge in the basement of the mind, but still influence an individual’s actions. In the streets of Brazil, however, the term is used as a synonym for envy. Fumaça has the word tattooed on the middle finger of his left hand.
In March, Talai further developed Lucinha’s profile:
March 4th, 2014
Carnival is ending and I’m heading home, tired of partying
Talai included cannabis as an area of interest to her and liked fanpages of rappers like Rachid and Emicida.
On the same day, March 4th, he updated Lúcia’s profile with a photo of a couple kissing, which also portrayed the words: “Naughtiness (…) everyone likes it.”
The photo had been previously shared on a Facebook group called Let’s get Naughty. Talai was ready. It was time to offer Lucinha to Fumaça.
4. Mmmm ya kute too..
March 6th, 2014
Lucinha: Hey…
Fumaça: Hey
The first attempt at contact between Lucinha and Fumaça was limited to this simple exchange of greetings. Since the conversation didn’t move forward, Talai asked a female friend for advice, who said his first step was too timid. “When a girl wants to do it, she goes for it,” she confided. Two days later, the police officer accepted the suggestions and showed Fumaça what it was all about.
March 8th, 2014
L: don’t judge, but I think you’re cute
F: Mmmm ya kute too..
L: ummm, do you go out at night?
if u want, we can hang out sometime
The inspector was able to catch the fugitive’s attention. They exchanged small talk (Lucinha said she had just moved to Alvorada, and therefore did not know the city well or people in the area), and on Sunday evening, March 9th, they agreed to meet some other day. But there was a problem: Fumaça demanded to see new photos of her. And that was a problem that Talai could not resolve on a Sunday. The image of the bombshell used for her profile had been downloaded form the internet and there were no other poses of that girl available. So he stalled.
March 9th, 2014
F: Yo send me a pic
L: I bet ya live wit some girl
F: Nah not really
L: I’m single, just don’t want any trouble lol
F: How old are ya? I didn’t get the pic
L: hi, I’m 24. I’m trying to send you a pic
but dunno how to make this thing work. how old are you?F: 23..
L: well if you want we can go out for a soda or something, maybe I can come by ur place or some other place lol. don’t judge me for being upfront but I like to get to the point cause life is too short to waste time with stupid shit
F: Alright but send me the pic
The time had come to finally give Lucinha a body and a voice. By coincidence, a blonde, curvy and blue-eyed clerk had arrived at the police station in the beginning of March. The 28-year-old officer, who at the time had been in the force for a year and a half (she asked not to be identified in this piece), had been in Alvorada for only a week. She was perfect bait. On the very next day, cops took a photo of her — with her back to the camera, so she wouldn’t be identified — and sent it to the fugitive through Facebook’s chat. Fumaça must have liked her pose and posture, because he asked for her phone number.
March 11th, 2014
L: My humber depends on your phone carrier,
I’m poor hahahaF: No problem tell me n I can call any number
He called her. And the police clerk answered. Fumaça asked for more pictures, but she said there were no more photos on her phone and that she was at work. And it was probably not a good idea for an employee at a grocery store to stop what she was doing to take sexy selfies during work hours. They hung up.
By the next day, police officers were determined to arrest Fumaça and began chatting in the early morning.
March 12th, 2014
L: Whats going on tonight,
are you going out or staying in?F: You wanna get it on tonight lets do it
L: I’m downtown now near Big
Lucinha said that in 15 minutes she would be at the grocery store BIG in the city’s center, where she supposedly worked as a cashier. Four police officers remained on the spot on standby, dressed in disguise and waiting for Fumaça. The blond clerk did not go. When Fumaça didn’t show up or respond, police officers started provoking him in a chat.
March 12, 2014
L: I’m here at big… where r u?
After waiting for three hours, they just gave up.
March 12th, 2014
L: since u didn’t show up I’m done, u made me a fool
Lucinha, who by now was operated by several cops, waited for two days and began acting like any woman who had been stood up: she questioned her partner’s manhood.
March 14, 2014
L: where r u little wimp who stood me up?
The situation was resolved with three phone calls in the following days. On Monday 17th, Fumaça called the clerk’s cell phone again, but she was not in a position to answer. Cops had to improvise by contacting him on Facebook, and that’s how they got a confession.
March 17th, 2014
F: hey
L: I’m at a work mtg
F: hum call me when ya can…
L: in the afternoon
F: alright
L: damn these guys talking nonstop, wish I was sleeping in this rain
F: i know..
L: do you work?
F: imma dealer haha
L: hahaha u r rich then lol
F: not yet …
L: but u will be lol, sometimes I smoke a joint,
but just to take it easyF: me too..
5. Nah too borin lets go to a motel n talk some.. Kk
On March 20th, Lucinha decided to go after Fumaça. She was tired of flirting. She used her best emoji — like a woman putting on high heels and a sexy dress — and fired.
March 20th, 2014, 10:04 am
L: goood mooorning ☺
With no time to waste, they agreed to meet at a gas station in Alvorada, at 12:30pm. Once in place, Lucinha would call Fumaça for him to pick her up. This time, police officers decided to take the clerk along as part of a well-planned operation to arrest the fugitive. She called him and Fumaça confirmed he would come to get her, but instead, one of Fumaça’s crew members showed up on a motorcycle, saying he had orders to take Lucinha to a secret hideout. The police clerk refused the ride, saying she would only go with Fumaça. She soon left and the operation was cancelled. Minutes later, the couple discussed their relationship in a chat.
L: if u picked me up on a bike I would go with u,
but I dunno who that guy is. I got scared.F: Yo truth is ya dunno my story
I can’t just be walkin around when we meet imma tell ya everytin….
if ya wanna see me dis is how it izL: well go somewhere to tell me ur story,
I’m scared of bikesF: fo real ya playin wit me haha
L: I’m not, but I only know you
F: But ya gotta trust me listen up…
not gonna insist no more….L: how am I gonna trust u if u can’t walk one block for me.
for real u r the one playing with me ☹F: Alright gotcha
L: ☹
Despite the setback, the police were almost convinced that Fumaça was about to fall into their trap. “He already had a boner. He wasn’t thinking anymore,” one of the investigators said. The team decided to provoke Fumaça on Lucinha’s timeline:
Can’t stand a man who is scared of women…
She got three likes and a comment for that. With the police station prepared to make an arrest, Lucinha pressured Fumaça even more on the chat. And it worked. He decided to show up in person in front of the grocery store at 7pm.
L: look, tmrw if u want I can meet up again,
but not today cause I’m pissed, second time you stand me up.
if u want u can call me tmrwF: Its all good, I’m gonna see ya where r ya at big
L: yeah until 5 if you wanna come here
F: I’m gonna go but has to be at seven.
what r we gonna do?L: fine but it has to be u cause I’m not going off with some random dude.
I can’t stay here at big.
we can go wherever u want lolF: Where r we goin haha
L: I’ll take you home with me lol
F: Where is dat?
L: on stela maris street
F: Nah too borin lets go to a motel n talk some.. haha
L: only if you pay the bill hahahaha.
cause I’m not paying for a motelF: I gotcha no worries
With the time and place of the meeting now scheduled, 10 police officers left for the grocery store. This time, they set up an extremely complex operation. The police clerk, wearing pink jeans and a white shirt (she was caught off guard — if she had had time to prepare, she would have worn a crop top and a baseball cap), would be waiting unarmed in front of the store’s main entrance. In case Fumaça tried to flee, a police car would shut off the entrance to the parking lot. Another police officer would be standing six feet from Lucinha, pretending to have a long conversation on a pay phone. Yet another cop would stand nearby with a grocery cart, as if he was waiting for his wife to arrive with the family’s car in order to fill the trunk with the week’s supplies. A third officer would stand in front of the store’s door. There would be a second vehicle positioned just behind them all, ready to close off the other parking lot exit, if necessary. All they needed now was to wait for the clerk’s signal. When the fugitive arrived, she would exchange a few words and then would pull her hair up, as if she was making a ponytail. That is when her peers would step in.
Fifty minutes before their date, Fumaça warned her that he was pulling out of their meeting.
F: Yo luv I don’t think I can be there…
L: wtf, no way. i’m done.
F: Hey luv dont do dat
Lucinha called Fumaça and gave an ultimatum. He either showed up, or they were done. His desire was stronger than his need for caution. So he changed his mind. At 8pm, a cab pulled up in front of the grocery store and parked right in front of the clerk. The back seat window opened. Inside the vehicle, Fumaça stretched his neck in order to see the blond girl who approached the car. He looked wary, while wearing a baseball cap, shorts and a blue and yellow Lacoste polo shirt.
L: Are you Cristiano?
(He confirmed with a nod)
L: You stood me up today and I didn’t like that.
F: Get in the cab right now!
In her last moments as Lucinha, the officer began pulling her hair up slowly, in a motion that would have been sensual in another context, but in reality was slow due to her fear that Fumaça would notice a strange movement and withdraw his gun. Between their dialogue and her signal, there were no more than 15 seconds. “But for me, it was like eternity,” she later said.
Suddenly, the policeman by the booth jumped into the spot where she had been standing at the cab’s window. The fake husband on a shopping trip stepped up to the door on the other side of the car. The third cop, who had looked as though he was just hanging out in front of the supermarket, moved towards the front of the car. Fumaça was trapped. Police announced his arrest and he did not react. Lucinha and the cab driver were also arrested, in order to give the impression that the meeting had not been a setup.
The next day, one of Fumaça’s sidekicks — or Fumaça himself — accessed his Facebook account to ask Lucinha for an explanation.
March 21st, 2014, 3:28 pm
F: hey luv
you set up cristiano huh
I just wanna know answer me
man hes been arrested
No one answered.
6. …..unfortunately life is nothin but choices
Fumaça was taken to Central Prison in Porto Alegre on March 21st. He pled not guilty on two counts of murder and was awaiting trial in late November 2014, when I last updated his situation. Since he has been incarcerated as a preventive measure, it is likely that Fumaça will be kept away from Jardim Algarve until he faces a judge during the trial. But in the end, it is up to the judicial system to decide his fate.
While hoping that the good will of Justice would eventually free him, Fumaça felt that he needed a distraction inside his prison cell — which was easy to find, since he started using a smartphone in jail (which is forbidden in Brazil). On June 8th, Fumaça returned to Facebook:
…..unfortunately life is nothin but choices …… Good mornin
Every once in a while the inmate makes clear how he feels about life behind bars:
June 11th
….there aint nothin dat brings freedom
or worse torture than missin….just sayin
June 14th
…..fo real gonna tell dis dude i want out haha..
An abridged version of this story was published in September, 2014, on Galileu magazine. The full text in portuguese is avaiable at Amazon: http://bit.ly/1yZhwEO
