The Racket In Brazil: Gangs Are Blowing Up Banks For Cash
Not long ago, a sudden boom echoed across the rooftops of southern Rio de Janeiro, bouncing off the granite hills and jolting people out of their slumbers in the wee small hours.
It came from a relatively tranquil neighborhood, and it was loud enough to be heard more than a mile away, within the villas beside Sugarloaf Mountain and along Copacabana Beach on the shores of the Atlantic.
Rio's residents are well accustomed to being woken in the night by volleys of fireworks, the thumping party music, and — in parts of the city — bursts of gunfire. But this loud bang was different: an explosion.
"It was massive," says Andre de Souza, 49, a resident of Botafogo, the neighborhood where the blast happened last month. "Afterwards I heard gunshots, and I
