Knowing who someone is doesn't make you part of their crimes.
In November 2024, Antônio Gritzbach — a businessman turned state witness against São Paulo's most powerful criminal faction — was shot dead in the baggage claim of Guarulhos Airport, a killing that has now drawn eighteen military police officers into the orbit of criminal accountability. São Paulo prosecutors have charged three officers with the murder itself and fourteen others for the quieter complicity of having served as his bodyguards, knowing full well who he was and what he represented. The case raises an ancient and uncomfortable question: at what point does proximity to power — criminal or otherwise — become participation in it?
- A state witness who had agreed to expose both PCC members and corrupt police was gunned down in a public airport, suggesting that the machinery protecting him had been compromised from within.
- Prosecutors allege the three officers who pulled the trigger and drove the getaway car were acting on orders from a PCC-linked figure seeking revenge for deaths Gritzbach was accused of orchestrating.
- Fourteen additional officers face charges not for the killing itself, but for the daily act of protecting a man they knew was entangled with organized crime — a line prosecutors argue crosses into complicity.
- Defense lawyers push back sharply, arguing that working as a bodyguard does not make someone a criminal conspirator, and that at least one accused officer was not even present on the day of the murder.
- Military Justice now has fifteen days to accept, reject, or reshape the charges, while all eighteen officers remain imprisoned and the case proceeds under seal.
Antônio Gritzbach was thirty-eight years old when he was shot in the baggage claim area of Guarulhos Airport in November 2024. He had made a dangerous choice: to become a state witness, agreeing to testify against members of the PCC and the corrupt police officers who moved in their orbit. On Monday, São Paulo prosecutors charged eighteen military police officers in connection with his death.
Three face murder charges. Cabo Denis Antonio Martins and Soldado Ruan Silva Rodrigues are accused of firing the fatal shots; Tenente Fernando Genauro da Silva allegedly drove the getaway car. All three have been in custody for months. The remaining officers are charged not with pulling a trigger, but with something more ambiguous — they were Gritzbach's bodyguards. In the military police, providing private security is a disciplinary violation, though the practice is common. More critically, prosecutors argue that these officers knew exactly who they were protecting: a man with admitted ties to PCC money laundering, under investigation for murder, and in the process of implicating powerful people.
The investigation found no evidence the security detail participated in the killing. But prosecutors concluded that knowledge, combined with continued service, amounted to complicity in organized crime. Defense lawyers reject this reasoning. One attorney argued his client was protecting a private citizen, not a faction member. Another insisted his client wasn't even present the day Gritzbach was killed.
The murder itself traces back through layers of accusation and retaliation. According to investigators, the hit was ordered by Carlos Gongorra Castilho, known as Cigarreira, allegedly in revenge for the 2021 killings of a PCC figure named Cara Preta and his driver. Gritzbach was the prime suspect in those deaths — a charge he denied, claiming he was being framed by a conspiracy between corrupt officers and the faction. Weeks before his own death, he gave a formal statement to internal affairs making exactly that accusation.
One additional officer faces charges of falsifying documents to conceal that a soldier in Gritzbach's detail had traveled with him to Maceió — the trip from which the businessman never returned — without proper leave authorization. All eighteen defendants remain imprisoned. Military Justice has fifteen days to rule on the charges. What the case leaves behind is a portrait of a man whose decision to testify against the powerful may have sealed his fate, and drawn everyone around him into the wreckage.
Antônio Gritzbach, thirty-eight years old, was shot dead in the baggage claim area of Guarulhos Airport on a November afternoon in 2024. He was a businessman who had become a state witness, agreeing to testify against members of the PCC—São Paulo's most powerful criminal faction—and corrupt police officers. On Monday, prosecutors in São Paulo charged eighteen military police officers in connection with his death. Three of them face murder charges. The other fifteen are accused of a different crime: they were his bodyguards.
The three accused shooters are Cabo Denis Antonio Martins and Soldado Ruan Silva Rodrigues, who allegedly fired the fatal shots, and Tenente Fernando Genauro da Silva, who prosecutors say drove the getaway vehicle. All three have been in custody for months. The fourteen other officers—now fifteen with one additional person named in the formal charges—worked as Gritzbach's personal security detail. In the military police, providing security for a private citizen is considered a disciplinary violation, even though the practice is widespread within the force.
The investigation found no evidence that the security detail participated in the actual killing. But prosecutors concluded they were complicit in organized crime. The reasoning is straightforward: they knew who Gritzbach was. They knew he had connections to the PCC. They knew he had admitted in a plea agreement to helping faction members launder money. They knew he was under investigation for the murder of a drug trafficker—a charge he denied. And yet they continued to work for him, day after day, protecting him. For prosecutors, that knowledge, combined with the protection they provided, made them part of the criminal organization.
The defense rejects this logic entirely. Guilherme Flauzino, a lawyer representing some of the security officers, said the prosecution's theory does not match reality. "According to the prosecutors, they were providing security for someone affiliated with a faction, which is simply not true," he said. The lawyer for Tenente Genauro, Mauro Ribas, went further, asserting that his client was not even present on the day of the murder and has no connection to the other officers under investigation.
The killing itself sits within a larger web of violence and accusation. According to the civil police investigation, the three shooters were acting on orders from Carlos Gongorra Castilho, known as Cigarreira, a man with ties to the PCC. Castilho allegedly ordered the hit in retaliation for the deaths of Anselmo Becheli Santa Fausta—known as Cara Preta—and his driver, Antônio Corona Neto, called Sem Sangue, both killed in 2021. Gritzbach was the prime suspect in Cara Preta's murder, though he maintained his innocence and claimed he was being framed by a conspiracy between corrupt police and PCC members.
In October 2024, just weeks before his own death, Gritzbach gave a statement to the police internal affairs division. He accused Castilho of orchestrating a scheme to pin him as the mastermind behind Cara Preta's killing. Cara Preta had been shot in his car in the Tatuapé neighborhood on the east side of São Paulo in late December 2021. The accusation, the counteraccusation, the layers of claim and denial—all of it ended when Gritzbach was shot at the airport.
One additional officer faces charges of falsifying documents and abuse of authority. According to the investigation, this tenente altered work schedules to cover for a soldier who was part of Gritzbach's security detail. The soldier had traveled with Gritzbach to Maceió—the trip from which the businessman never returned—but his request for leave had not been properly processed. The officer altered records to hide the absence.
All eighteen defendants remain imprisoned. The military justice system now has fifteen days to decide whether to accept the charges, reject them, or ask for additional investigation. The case is proceeding under seal. Other criminal cases against the same officers are moving through the regular courts. What emerges from the charges is a portrait of a man whose decision to become a witness against powerful criminals—and the police officers who worked with them—may have sealed his fate, and implicated everyone around him in the process.
Citas Notables
According to the prosecutors, they were providing security for someone affiliated with a faction, which is simply not true.— Guilherme Flauzino, defense lawyer for security officers
He did not commit this crime, he was not present on the day of the facts.— Mauro Ribas, defense lawyer for Tenente Fernando Genauro da Silva
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why charge the security detail at all if they didn't pull the trigger?
Because prosecutors believe that knowing who Gritzbach was—knowing his connections to the PCC, knowing he was a witness—and continuing to protect him anyway made them part of the criminal organization. It's a theory of complicity through knowledge and action.
But the investigation found no evidence they participated in the murder itself.
Correct. That's the tension. They're not accused of killing him. They're accused of being members of a criminal organization. The security work is the evidence of that membership.
And the defense says that's wrong?
The defense says it's absurd. They say their clients were doing a job—a job that's common in the police force, even if it's technically against regulations. Knowing who someone is doesn't make you part of their crimes.
What about the officer who altered the schedules?
He's a different case. He's accused of covering up the fact that one of the security officers traveled with Gritzbach to Maceió. He changed the records to hide the absence. That's straightforward misconduct.
So we have three shooters, fourteen or fifteen security officers, and one bureaucrat covering tracks.
Yes. And all of them in custody, waiting for the military court to decide if the charges stick. The court has fifteen days to rule.
What happens if the court rejects the charges?
Then the officers could be released, or the case moves differently. But they've already been held for months. The court's decision will shape what comes next.