Why Brazil Just Saw Its Most Worrying Assassination in Years

The PCC repeatedly targeted Ruy Ferraz Fontes, São Paulo's former police chief and one of their worst enemies, for over 15 years until they killed him this week.

Ruy Ferraz Fontes spent four decades chasing Brazil’s most notorious gangsters, including serving as police chief for the city of São Paulo. Many of his greatest success came against the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil’s largest criminal gang and one of the most powerful in Latin America.

It appears the PCC got their revenge on the man deemed to be one of their most formidable foes.

On September 15, Fontes, aged 64, was ambushed by three gunmen as he left work in the town of Praia Grande. Security footage later showed Fontes’s car racing through city streets pursued by a black Toyota Hilux SUV, before it slammed into a bus and flipped over. Trapped in the wreckage, Fontes drew his firearm and managed to wound one assailant even as they opened fire, before he succumbed to his injuries.