BRAZIL : Carnaval’s New Organizers Reported to Have Mob Ties

RIO DE JANEIRO —  This city’s famed samba schools this week unveiled the theme songs for next year’s Carnaval, the unofficial signal for the start of the hectic season of local preparation for the world-famous event.

But while school followers were reveling in the latest rhythmic concoctions, the mayor, tourism officials and law enforcement agencies were embroiled in a nasty, behind-the-scenes Carnaval samba of their own.

This year, the city will turn over the vast majority of control of the February event to the League of Samba Schools, an independent confederation of 16 major samba groups whose 70,000 members make up the colorfully dressed, dancing throngs featured in the event’s parade.

The league will be in charge of organizing the event and securing vendors, as well as tickets sales, promotion and television contracts. The city will provide support services, such as fire, police and sanitation. In exchange, the league will receive 74% of gate receipts and 100% of TV contracts and licensing agreements--about $8 million.

But critics are howling, asserting that the city has, in essence, handed over Brazil’s most prestigious event to organized crime.

That’s because the district attorney’s office and others long associated with Carnaval assert that the samba league is simply a front for the bicheiros, criminals who purportedly control a $2-billion-a-year illegal lottery and may be connected with Colombia’s Cali cocaine cartel.

“It’s regretful that now the Carnaval is definitely in the hands of the bandits,” said Trajano Ribeiro, president for seven years of RioTour, a city agency that promotes tourism.

Evidence seized from mob strongholds shows that the league is tied to organized crime, said Dist. Atty. Antonio Carlos Biscaia, who in the last year has mounted a major campaign that has put many mob bosses behind bars and sent their chief, Castor de Andrade, into hiding.

Biscaia said 1987-94 mob ledgers found in a raid on De Andrade’s home showed that the mob kept tallies of league expenses and provided services and payments to its members.

Also in the records were payouts and campaign contributions to more than 300 police officers, judges and politicians, including the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia, who the records say received $100,000.

Many connected with Carnaval have questioned why Maia would give the league such a large share of the operation.

Biscaia claims that the bicheiros ‘ link to the league is through its president, Paulo de Almeida, also a congressman. “He’s just a front for them,” Biscaia said. “That’s why he goes and visits them once or twice a week in prison.”

De Almeida responded: “Yes, I go to visit them, but because they are my friends. It’s easy to talk about somebody’s life, but they have to have proof. We are not the facade of the bicheiros. The league is one of the most serious organizations in the country.”

De Almeida said it is true that the bicheiros have a 20-year association with samba schools, but that ended last year when many mob leaders were jailed. “The bicheiros were the godfathers of the schools of the sambas,” he said. “They organized Carnaval, and they made it into the largest show in the world. But that doesn’t mean they gave (samba schools) money.”

The mayor’s office has also rejected charges that the league is mob controlled. “The league is a recognized, legitimate company that operates in a normal, open market,” Maia said at the signing of the contract between the city and the group.

Biscaia said he is seeking a court order to annul the contract.