Brazil: Criminal Empire - Chapter 176: Rock’s New Idea (Patreon)

The three special operations squads had eighteen members in total. Four were injured, while three stayed behind at the Fortress to train Battle Angels’ full members and Reserve Unit.

Including the members stationed in the Slope favela, Battle Angels now had nearly one hundred full members.

Those who had passed the trials and earned the gang’s trust would return to the Great Rock Wall Favela to receive training from the instructor corps.

The remaining eleven squad members, plus Rock, made twelve people in all. They loaded the necessary equipment into three vehicles and left the Great Rock Wall Favela.

This time, they exited through the southern entrance of the favela.

That route took them through the neighboring favela that Battle Angels was currently expanding into.

The convoy even made a point of driving past one of the UPP police stations.

Looking at the bored officers standing outside the station, Rock suddenly had an idea.

Maybe he needed to look at the problem from a different angle.

There was not necessarily any need to drive the UPP police station out of the area.

Could he select a few qualified full members of Battle Angels and have them join the Rio de Janeiro police force instead?

Then, using Felício’s connections, he could arrange for them to be stationed here.

That way, the UPP police station could remain in place, and the Rio de Janeiro police could still give the state authorities an acceptable explanation.

At the same time, Rock would retain control over the territory.

“Rivaldo, I have an idea...”

Rock explained the entire plan to Rivaldo. The former senior BOPE instructor, now Battle Angels’ Chief Instructor, had become one of Rock’s most capable right-hand men.

“Boss, there’s nothing wrong with that idea...”

Rivaldo immediately gave the plan his full approval.

In fact, Rio de Janeiro’s gangs had been doing similar things for years.

That was one of the reasons the police had never managed to completely uproot the gangs entrenched in the favelas.

Whenever the police prepared a major move, the gangs in the favelas could receive word even faster than many police officers did.

It was also why the Rio de Janeiro state government always deployed BOPE for major operations.

With gangs having infiltrated so much of Rio de Janeiro’s policing network, BOPE was one of the few units that had remained relatively clean.

But BOPE had only about four hundred personnel, roughly the size of a reinforced battalion. Against the enormous number of gang members spread across Rio de Janeiro State, its manpower was stretched extremely thin.

That made BOPE the state’s heaviest hammer.

Whenever necessary, it could be aimed at the most difficult area and brought down hard until the problem was solved.

Most day-to-day issues, however, still had to be handled by ordinary police officers, and that gave the gangs plenty of opportunities.

Any gang with the means would send a few trusted subordinates into the police force.

Over time, that had created the strange situation in Rio de Janeiro where police and criminals were, in many places, deeply entangled.

As a former BOPE member, Rivaldo was very familiar with the process of applying to join the police.

“Boss, while we’re training the guys, we can have them take the relevant tests in advance. That way, when they apply later, their chances of passing will be much higher...”

Rivaldo offered his suggestion.

Rock readily accepted it. For matters like this, listening to someone with professional experience was obviously the right choice.

He immediately picked up his phone and messaged the three instructors who had stayed behind, telling them to watch for suitable candidates among the current trainees.

As the convoy passed through the favela at the foot of Great Rock Wall, Rock saw members of the Reserve Unit patrolling the streets.

The Reserve Unit no longer accepted anyone under seventeen because waiting for younger recruits to grow up simply took too long.

Its current purpose was to provide a pool of members who could be promoted into the full ranks whenever needed.

Led by one or two young adults, these teenage recruits patrolled the favela streets carrying AK-74s or AK-47s, taking their duties more seriously than many police officers.

The small convoy soon left the favela, while Rock and Rivaldo continued discussing whether these younger recruits might have a better chance of becoming police officers.

According to Rivaldo, however, very few of them actually met the requirements.

Under the relevant Brazilian rules, becoming a federal police officer required at least a university degree, while joining the Rio de Janeiro state police required at least a high school diploma.

Very few favela youths who had dropped out of school early met those standards.

There simply were not many like Fatima who had managed to finish high school.

In a different environment, Rock might have considered launching a broad education drive.

Still, with tens of thousands of people living under his influence, finding a handful of qualified young men would not be too difficult.

The bigger issue was that taking them out of the favela and placing them in police positions would effectively raise their social status.

It would amount to helping them move up an entire rung in society.

Whether those young men would still obey orders after their circumstances improved was another question entirely.

That was why Rock still preferred to choose candidates from among Battle Angels’ full members and Reserve Unit first.

Those people and their families were already tied to Battle Angels’ interests. They either already benefited from the gang or were in line to benefit from it.

Battle Angels also held at least some leverage over most of them.

People like that were much safer to use because there was less risk of them turning around and biting the hand that had raised them up.

Rock and Rivaldo discussed the matter throughout the drive and eventually settled on several selection requirements. Before getting out of the vehicle, Rock called Ciro and told him to make the arrangements.

Because of Rock’s plan, some Battle Angels Reserve Unit members ended up returning to school.

It was now an assignment from the gang, and they were required to obtain their high school diplomas.

Classes that had once felt unbearably dull suddenly became much more interesting.

The convoy entered a small, desolate area in western Rio de Janeiro.

After driving for more than ten minutes along a narrow road leading into the hills, they finally came upon an isolated training camp.

Several heavily armed guards stood watch at the entrance.

Rivaldo got out to speak with them.

Seeing how warmly Rivaldo chatted with the guards, Rock realized they were all acquaintances.

As a former senior BOPE instructor, Rivaldo knew most of the people here, apart from perhaps a few newer recruits.

Following the guards’ directions, the vehicles slowly entered the camp and stopped in a large open area.

Several BOPE armored vehicles and operational vehicles were already parked there.

The special operations squad members piled out of the vehicles.

The retired BOPE members knew the place inside and out and barely gave it a second glance, while the former Parachute Brigade and GATE members looked around the camp with obvious curiosity.

Rock jumped out as well and surveyed the area.

The camp covered a sizable area and included a variety of terrain and obstacles designed specifically for training, including hills, ponds, barbed wire, overpasses, and more.

On the northeast side of the camp was a purpose-built CQB training area.

A large shooting range occupied the northwest side.

Those were the facilities Rock needed most at the moment, since the Great Rock Wall Favela still lacked anything comparable.

At the center of the camp stood a building designed like a military barracks.

It housed the training ground’s dormitories, infirmary, and mess hall.

“Hey, Instructor Rivaldo, how’ve you been lately?”

A group of people emerged from the building at the center of the training ground.