Military Police officers policing the Morro do Mocotó in Florianópolis on Thursday 5 November arrested a 33-year-old man the force describes as the hill’s “disciplina”, the gang member who enforces its rules.[1] The arrest came on the first day of Operação Lei e Ordem (Operation Law and Order), an operation run jointly by the 4th Military Police Battalion, the Riot Battalion and the BOPE special operations battalion to suppress organised crime in the state capital.[1] Police said the man resisted arrest by throwing his two mobile phones to the ground, and he was detained for drug trafficking and resisting arrest.[2]

There was already a warrant out for him for drug trafficking, association for trafficking, robbery and illegal possession of a firearm.[1] According to the Military Police he belongs to the Primeiro Grupo Catarinense (PGC), the largest criminal organisation in Santa Catarina, and has 20 recorded incident reports in the state, most of them for trafficking and illegal possession of firearms.[2] The operation’s cannabis seizure weighed 845 grams, as stated in the case summary.[1]

Officers seized 845 grams of cannabis and the two phones, which were to be examined by forensic experts.[2] The man was taken to the Civil Police station, which handles the applicable legal procedures.[3]