Violence and police action surrounding Rio de Janeiro’s underground “jogo do bicho” have intensified within a span of 11 days, with the arrest of one alleged gambling boss and the attempted assassination of another, both in the Barra da Tijuca district. On 30 June, agents from the state prosecutor’s organised-crime unit (Gaeco/MPRJ) and the Civil and Military Police arrested Marcelo Simões Mesqueu, known as Marcelo Cupim. He is accused of ordering the 2017 killings of Haylton Carlos Gomes Escafura, son of veteran contraventor José Caruzzo Escafura, and the victim’s partner, police officer Franciene de Souza. The operation included 15 search warrants executed in Rio, Cabo Frio and Florianópolis. Investigators say the crime stemmed from a dispute over control of gambling territories once run by the elder Escafura. Less than two weeks later, on 11 July, Vinicius Pereira Drumond—heir to the late gambling figure Luizinho Drumond—survived a daytime ambush on Avenida das Américas. Roughly 40 shots struck his armoured Porsche; he sustained minor injuries from glass fragments, was treated at Hospital Barra D’Or and released. The Delegacia de Homicídios da Capital recovered a getaway vehicle abandoned in Guaratiba and is pursuing leads on the shooters’ identities and motive. Drumond is already under investigation in Operation Ouro Negro, which alleges he financed a ring that siphoned fuel from Petrobras pipelines. Cupim, meanwhile, faces separate charges of money-laundering and illegal gambling. Authorities say the back-to-back incidents highlight a power struggle between an older and a rising generation of racketeers and underscore the priority being given to dismantling Rio’s long-entrenched illegal betting networks.