“I manufactured the entire rifle”, says the delegate; PF investigation reveals how gangs produce weapons
An investigation by the PF (Federal Police) revealed a scheme of clandestine rifle factories in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, which supplied the criminal faction CV (Comando Vermelho). According to one of the “Fantastic”displayed on TV Globo on Sunday (November 2, 2025), the weapons were produced in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste, in the interior of São Paulo. The factory used at least 11 precision industrial equipment, such as lathes and milling machines.
“I manufactured the entire rifle. It was a professional industrial plant. It wasn’t a garage factory or 3D printer. It was high-precision equipment that cost millions of reais”declared delegate Samuel Escobar, from the Rio PF, to the “Fantastic”.
In Santa Bárbara d’Oestethe PF seized around 150 finished rifles, in addition to more than 30,000 parts for the manufacture of rifles. The assembly line has the capacity to manufacture up to 3,500 rifles per year.
According to the “Fantastic”Rafael Xavier do Nascimento was responsible for transporting rifles from São Paulo to Complexo do Alemão, other communities in Rio and militia areas at least once a month. He was arrested in the act with 13 rifles on Via Dutra.
According to the PF, Anderson Custódio Gomes, from the gang’s operational core, was also caught in the act transporting enough parts to produce 80 rifles. He took the parts from the Santa Bárbara d’Oeste factory to the gang’s warehouse, in the city of Americana, in the interior of São Paulo. According to the “Fantastic”the front for the crime was the CNPJ (National Register of Legal Entities) of an aeronautical parts factory, belonging to Gabriel Carvalho Belchior, who is on the run and entered Interpol’s wanted list.
The PF told the “Fantastic” that Gabriel sent dismantled rifles to Brazil inside boxes of inflatable swimming pools and other merchandise. He bought it in the United States and shipped it to Brazil. The IRS intercepted one of these shipments in August. The model of these rifles is different from the one produced in the clandestine factory in the interior of São Paulo. “The main investigator here in Rio de Janeiro received these rifles and sold them to the criminal faction”said delegate Escobar.
The delegate refers to Silas Diniz Carvalho, arrested in 2023 after being caught with 47 rifles in his apartment in Barra da Tijuca, Rio. At the time, the PF discovered the gang’s first factory in Belo Horizonte, which Silas operated together with his wife, Marcely Ávila Machado. “It looked like a normal, common factory, a furniture factory, frames, doors, but inside the factory, inside there was all the illicit operations”said the delegate.
The PF estimates that the clandestine factories supplied around 1,000 rifles to factions in Rio, not only in Complexo do Alemão, but also in Rocinha and Complexo da Maré, for militias and for factions in Bahia and Ceará.
Operation Containment, which targeted the CV, became the , with 121 dead. Among them, 4 are police officers, including the head of the 53rd DP (Mesquita Police Station), Marcus Vinicius.
During the operation, agents seized: 118 weapons (91 rifles, 26 pistols and 1 revolver); 14 explosive devices; magazines, ammunition and drugs (there is no official count yet). Of the 91 rifles seized, at least 25 were similar to those manufactured in Santa Bárbara d’Oesteaccording to the Rio Civil Police.
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