Official: PCC criminal gang prime suspect in arson on Brazilian farmland | WTAQ News Talk | 97.5 FM · 1360 AM

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Some of the suspects arrested for setting fire to sugar cane fields in Sao Paulo state told police they had links to an organized crime gang and were taking revenge for government anti-crime measures, a senior state official said on Tuesday.

The fires, which broke out last week, spread rapidly across parched fields over the weekend, at the height of the country's dry season, destroying thousands of hectares of sugar cane plantations and sending clouds of smoke enveloping surrounding towns.

The state's agriculture minister, Guilherme Piai, told Reuters that the fires broke out at the same time in different locations, suggesting that they were not accidents.

The government suspects that one of Brazil's largest criminal gangs, the Primeiro Comando da Capital – commonly known as PCC – was behind the fires in retaliation for measures to combat the criminal trade in contaminated fuel.

“Organized crime has bought up some bankrupt fuel plants and hundreds of gas stations. Perhaps this is a form of retaliation for the measures taken against organized crime,” Piai said.

PCC was founded in 1993 by inmates of a maximum security prison in Sao Paulo and developed from drug trafficking into the most powerful and feared criminal gang in Brazil.

Brazil's Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro had previously described the fires in the sugar cane fields as criminal, but did not provide any details.

More than 2,100 fires raged through sugar cane fields, burning 59,000 hectares of sugar cane and new crop land. About half of Brazil's sugar cane is grown in Sao Paulo.

According to the sugar cane producers' association Orplana, the fires caused an estimated 350 million reais (63.59 million dollars) in damage.

The state governor, Tarcisio de Freitas, estimated total losses from crop failures and other damage to property and businesses at over 1 billion reais.

As of Monday, four men had been arrested after being caught red-handed with gasoline canisters with which they planned to set fire to the building, Freitas said. A fifth suspect was arrested on Tuesday, authorities said.

(1 USD = 5.5043 Reals)

(Reporting by Roberto Samora, writing by Anthony Boadle, editing by William Maclean)