I have a friend with more testosterone than sense. He and a college buddy found themselves on the Mexican border during Spring Break several years ago with some spending money and a little time. They were young, bulletproof, and immortal, so they figured they’d wander over and spend the day exploring Juarez on foot.
These two pale gringos were having a simply grand time taking in the sights. However, in short order, they got lost. These were the days before ubiquitous GPS-equipped cell phones, so they really were on their own. Soon they found themselves in a bad neighborhood with the locals looking at them all hungry-like.
Just when things seemed bleakest these two stupid American college kids happened upon a pair of uniformed Mexican police officers and innocently attempted to ask directions. In response, the two Mexican cops drew their weapons and robbed the young men of all their accumulated possessions.
You didn’t need a passport to travel to Mexico back then, so they did eventually get back over the border. However, they lost their wallets, watches, and everything else of value they had on their persons. This was their rude introduction to the realities of police corruption in a Third-World country.
Relativity
It is in vogue to denigrate and even assault the police in America these days. Quite a few politicians have built successful careers around the practice. However, we have no idea what truly bad police really look like. In America, if you get in trouble with precious few exceptions you can call 911 and some selfless guardian with a gun will show up to help you out. The rare exceptions get all the press, but when the zombies start staggering up the cul-de-sac even the most ardent police-bashing anarchist will eventually pick up the phone.
Today’s sordid episode gives us a glimpse into the dark realities of life in the favelas, the sprawling lawless slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In these strange spaces, drug cartel foot soldiers openly packing automatic weapons patrol the streets around police stations. The militarized police force conducts massive armed operations, but shadow organizations of current and former cops engage in extra-judicial killings at the behest of powerful figures both inside and outside of government. It is suspected that this corruption infects the Brazilian government at all levels.
The Target
Marielle Franco was born in the summer of 1979 in Mare, a slum area in Northern Rio de Janeiro. She began working to help support her family at age eleven. She had a daughter at age 19 and raised the child as a single mother. Franco was openly bisexual and lived with her partner Monica Benicio from 2017 until her death.
Franco held a Master’s degree in public administration and was an avowed socialist. Her resume included qualifications as a sociologist, feminist, and human rights activist. In 2016 she won a seat on the Rio de Janeiro city council. She used her political pulpit to speak out vociferously against police corruption. This made her some very dangerous enemies.
The Setting
Crime in urbanized Brazil is so extensive as to be difficult for the civilized mind to comprehend. Many to most of the refugees flowing toward our southern border are fleeing such sordid stuff as this. In the face of well-funded and ruthless gangs driven by drugs, murder, and rampant unfettered lawlessness, many police organizations exceed their official mandate. It’s like a bad movie.
Even if they originally meant well, absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the favelas of Rio, that means shadowy milicias comprised of trained law enforcement officers who undertake extrajudicial killings without due process. While many times this means dead bad guys, it also results in substantial collateral damage as well. In darker spaces, it also means that political activists are targeted for termination based upon their cultural and social influence.
The Hit
On March 13, 2018, Marielle Franco posted this to Twitter, “Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end?”
The following day Franco and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes were returning home from a round table discussion titled, “Young Black Women Moving (Power) Structures.” This event promoted the empowerment of black women in impoverished Brazil. Ms. Franco’s press officer was also in the back seat. From out of the traffic a Chevy Cobalt pulled stealthily up alongside.
The passenger in the Cobalt then produced an HK MP5 submachine gun and fired a total of nine rounds in controlled bursts. Four bullets hit Franco—three in the head and one in the neck. She died on the scene. Her driver was struck by three rounds and was also killed. Her press secretary was injured but survived.
Details
Movies would have us believe that highly-trained hitmen accepting contracts from anonymous clients online have raised assassination for money to an art form. Reality is typically far removed from this stylized image. In many places, criminals will kill in exchange for drugs or even the right to pilfer the pockets of the deceased. In the case of Marielle Franco, however, this job truly was professionally executed.
The kill zone was a city street amply covered with surveillance cameras. However, somebody with the skill and access to do so had deactivated the cameras covering the area at the precise moment of the hit. The cartridge cases recovered at the scene were traced to a shipment sent to Brasilia’s federal police force in 2006. Police officials initially alleged that the shipment had been stolen from a local post office though they later retracted this claim.
The HK MP5 submachine gun incorporates a fluted chamber to smooth extraction and enhance reliability. As a result, fired cases from an MP5, or any roller-locked HK firearms for that matter, demonstrate distinctive longitudinal lines. No other military weapon in common use marks its empties in this manner. This identified the murder gun as a fairly rarefied piece of iron.
The Weapon
The HK MP5 traces its roots all the way back to the Second World War and the German MG42 belt-fed machinegun. The previous MG34 had revolutionized Infantry combat. For the first time maneuver elements were afforded truly man-portable, rifle-caliber, belt-fed firepower mobile enough to keep pace during an Infantry assault. However, the MG34 was meticulously machined with tight tolerances. This made the gun heavy, expensive, and finicky.
The MG42, by contrast, was formed predominantly out of stamped steel pressings that could be churned out cheaply by semi-skilled workers. The beating heart of the MG42 was its roller-locked, delayed-blowback action. This system utilized a pair of roller bearings that cammed into recesses milled into the breech face. The end result was cheap, rugged, and reliable.
In the closing days of WW2, the Germans adapted this system to drive a prototype assault rifle. The StG 45 was an evolutionary development of the StG 44 and used the roller-locked system to fire the 7.92x33mm Kurz intermediate cartridge. Allied forces overran the arms factories where these guns were being developed, but the design was subsequently taken to Spain.
This effort resulted in the Spanish CETME rifle that eventually morphed into the German HK G3. This same action was rechambered for the 5.56mm, the 7.62x39mm, and, in 1964, the 9mm pistol cartridge. This pistol caliber SMG was originally designated the HK54. It eventually became known as the MP5.
The MP5 was first issued to German border police in 1966. It has since been produced under license around the world in more than 100 different variations and remains in series production today. Though its 800 rpm rate of fire is a bit spunky for my tastes, the MP5 remains one of the smoothest submachineguns ever produced. The takedown of the Iranian embassy in London on May 5, 1980, by the British SAS wielding HK MP5 SMGs on international television, sold untold thousands of the guns to military and LE users around the globe.
The Aftermath
Brazilian police investigated Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira and Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega in connection with the killings. Both men had been honored by Jair Bolsonaro, the current President of Brazil, for their police service in the early 2000s. Nóbrega purportedly headed one of these extrajudicial paramilitary groups active in Brazil called “The Crime Bureau.” He was shot to death after supposedly firing upon police who came to arrest him in northeastern Bahia state. Whatever secrets he held went with him to the grave.
Brazilian police also arrested Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Vieira de Queiroz roughly a year after the shooting. Lessa was purportedly the triggerman, while de Queiroz was alleged to have driven the Cobalt. Both men were former members of the military police. One was also a previous neighbor of current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a gated luxury apartment complex in Rio. Both Lessa and de Queiroz denied involvement.
I read quite a lot about this sordid situation pulling this article together and still don’t even begin to understand it. Allegations of corruption run all the way up to the Presidency. Various players served together in either the military or elite Law Enforcement units and seem connected in ways that are impossible to untangle. However, the take-home point is that today’s American institutional Law Enforcement challenges pale in the face of true corruption.
Very good article. Since the history of roller locked HK’s was delved into, I must point out that the roller locked P9S 9mm and .45 acp pistols do not feature fluted chambers. I wish someone would take a shot at a new updated P9S. Certainly one of the most accurate semi auto pistols ever made.
I’m a fan of Gabbie franco a lovely Venezuelan who did pretty good on top shot and absolutely despises socialism.
But she was an avowed socialist. Not a good look.
Thirty years or so ago I took a college course on Brazilian culture/history from a smart, highly engaged and very liberal professor who described issues like the rogue cops. He talked about the impossible situation they are in: tens of thousands of extraordinarily violent street kids -10, 12, 14, 16 years old- committing armed robberies daily, murdering people without any particular reason, and governments utterly unable to deal with those violent criminals in any useful way.
So some cops decide that in order to reduce the numbers of murderers on the streets they have do the job themselves, because otherwise it will not get done. They round up the kids they know are problems, take them elsewhere, and murder them. Repeat.
Even the liberal prof couldn’t suggest a better response to the impossible situation. ‘Cultures adapt to reality, not the other way around’ was more or less how he put it.
All the socialist Dems need to read this article to appreciate American law enforcement.
This month marks 25 years that I have lived in NEW Mexico. Since moving here from the PNW I have gone down into Old Mexico exactly once in either 1999 0r 2000. We crossed the border at Columbus/Palomas and went deep (about six blocks) into the heart of old Mexico for dinner and drinks at a fairly nice restaurant. I was scared spitless the entire time. If I never go back it’ll be too soon. That is just no place for an Americaner.
Think it cant happen here? The floodgates are open and the 3rd world is pouring in. Plant corn you get corn.
If people bitching about American cops had any idea what kind of petty stuff they lose their jobs over, nobody would sign up for the job. Yep, there are places you go on vacation where the whole objective of getting a job as a cop is so you can rob people more easily. Thanks for the great article, Will.
Ain’t one thing good about Mexico!!!
There are a lot of good things about Mexico. I grew up 30 miles from the Mexican border (Rio Grande Valley) and recently moved back. I’m white and was adopted and raised by a Mexican-American family. Both of my parents were born in Mexico and legally immigrated to the United States. Spanish is my first language. My bio mom was from Kentucky and that’s where I was born and it would be easy to say that there’s nothing good about Kentucky, but we all know that’s not true. My mom raised me and my other sisters and brother(my brother is an Army Veteran, I served in the Marine Corps from ’76-’79). When I young one of my grandpa’s had a restaurant in Progreso, Mexico and I spent lots of summers there(and yes as a white kid, I stood out in that environment, but people in the area looked out for me and I never had any serious issues. I witnessed Police corruption. I also witnessed Police corruption in the Philippines when I was in Subic Bay(Ologapo). There are a lot of great people from Mexico. There is still a lot of corruption and border towns are dangerous, but most Mexican people are hard workers and they raise their children to believe in God and work hard. That’s how I was raised. I’ll always disagree with ANY generalizations about countries, races, or even branches of the military. This Marine has learned to count past 10, after I learned how to use a calculator. My mom turns 93 next Saturday, God willing. In my opinion, she’s one of the best people who’s ever lived, who happens to be from Mexico.
I agree. Silly to stereotype people based on bad apples. Other than border towns, never had a problem in Mexico.
This was Brazil.
I’ve never been to Brazil, but I’ve been humbled many times by a practicioner of Brazilian JuJitsu(Brazilian JuJitsu was one of the best things that ever happened in the United States because it humbled many Karate people like myself.). I have talked to a few people from Brazil and they have shared how dangerous it is there. I believe we are truly blessed to live in the best country in the world. I remember thinking how similar it was between the poor people in Olongapo(Philippines) and Matamoros, Reynosa, or Progreso(Mexico).
Coming to a neighborhood near you, very soon, thanks to the new administration.
You’re not kidding. Dropping police recruiting standards to achieve Woke objectives is going to put badges on people who have no business being in positions of authority over humans. Look for Dirlewangers.
I enjoyed reading this article! Props to the author and please, more content like this – even though the story was sad, there are things to learn from it.
Wow, one of your best, Will. Your word count x10 couldn’t cover this in depth. Sketchy topic.