In Brazil, cons by cons using cells in cells

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Brazilian authorities this week arrested a jail guard who allegedly ran a cellphone concession in the joint. He was accused of selling phones to inmates at the Presidente Venceslau prison for the equivalent of about $1,000 each, reports O Estado de São Paulo.

Officials have found it hard to keep the mobile culture out of Brazil’s notoriously overcrowded and violent penal system. Cellphones are more than a means for prisoners to stay in touch. In Brazil, they’re used on the inside to commit crime on the outside.

Last year, imprisoned gang leaders employed cellphones to coordinate synchronized attacks that resulted in a daylong shutdown of São Paulo, the country’s economic center.

Prisoners also use them in phony kidnappings, in which money is extorted in exchange for the supposed victims. Many terrified people have forked over ransoms after receiving anonymous calls telling them loved ones have been abducted. Authorities say many of the calls originate from inside jails and prisons.

Posted by Marcelo Soares in São Paulo and Patrick J. McDonnell in Lima, Peru