Luiz Pacheco Drummond, nicknamed Luizinho Drummond, is an illegal lottery operator (bicheiro) and the patron of samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense. He has been the president of the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro (LIESA) from 1998-2001.
Drummond controlled the illegal but popular private lottery system known as the Jogo do Bicho, or "animal game", in the Leopoldina area of Rio de Janeiro.[1] The operators are known as contraventores (those that flout the law), bicheiros or banqueiros ("bankers"). In 2002, he became the vice-president of Botafogo soccer club.[2]
Drummond was found guilty by judge Denise Frossard in 1993 of involvement in the Jogo do Bicho, along with 13 other bicho bankers such as Castor de Andrade, Capitão Guimarães and Anísio Abraão David. They were found responsible for at least 53 deaths. They were sentenced to six years each, the maximum sentence for racketeering.[3] But in December 1996 they were all back on the streets, granted parole or clemency.
In 1999 Drummond was charged with the murder of the gambling racketeer, Abílio Português in 1998, but the timing of his arrest appeared aimed at sending a message to mob leaders involved in the Rio Carnival. Police said Drummond and his alleged victim had clashed in a territorial dispute over the control of the Jogo do Bicho.[4]
On March 13, 2006, the Federal Police arrested Luizinho’s son Luiz Antônio Drummond in Belém, in the state Pará in the northeast of Brazil, in an operation against illegal gambling with slot machines, known in Brazil as "nickel hunters" (caça-níqueis). The arrest indicated the national expansion of the Rio bicheiros.[5]