Brazil Police Probe Drugs, Gang Link İn Soccer Fan Massacre

The massacre of eight soccer fans at a São Paulo fan club was likely linked to drugs but could have been ordered by prison gangs, police in Brazil's largest city said Monday.



As burials began Monday, police said they had already identified two suspects, and that prison gangs -- operating inside and outside of Brazil's jails -- were possibly responsible for the killings. No specific link has yet been confirmed.



Police chief Luiz Fernando Lopes Teixeira said Monday that only one of the victims had been specifically targeted, according to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.



The Corinthians fans were at an event at the Pavilhão Nove supporters' club putting up team banners late Saturday when three gunmen entered and killed the men - all aged between 19 and 38 years.



Seven were forced to lie down and shot dead, execution style, while an eighth man was killed as he attempted to flee, according to police.



A witness said lives were spared because the attackers ran out of bullets, the G1 news portal reported.



Although Brazil has experienced growing problems with football-related violence, investigators said a number of the victims were involved in drug trafficking, and police have not ruled out a disagreement between rival traffickers.



The Pavilhão Nove fan club was created in 1992 to remember victims of the Carandiru prison massacre in São Paulo the same year. At least 111 prisoners were killed, most by prison guards, in a bungled operation to quell a riot at the jail.



São Paulo state now has an estimated prison population of 270,000, according to the Brazilian Bar Association, and many of the state's prisons are controlled by gangs, including the notorious First Command of the Capital, or PCC, which official figures show is active in at least 22 states in Brazil.



Corruption and severe overcrowding at prison facilities means mobile phones can be smuggled in and used to organize criminal activities.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Sao Paulo