The Global Rise of Narco-Pentecostalism

When Brazilian authorities raided the home of Alvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa in 2021, what they found wasn’t your typical drug kingpin’s lair. Surrounding the sizable swimming pool was a large fresco depicting the old city of Jerusalem, complete with armed forces carrying a Star of David flag — and all under a banner with the words “Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

Then again, the man better known as Peixao, which translates to Big Fish, is few people’s vision of a typical cocaine trafficker. Reportedly an ordained evangelical pastor, Peixao headed a gang variously known as Army of the Living God, Aaron’s Troop or Bonde da Kabbalah, which controls a cluster of five favelas — the slums that ring Brazil’s major cities — known as “Complexo de Israel” and home to some 134,000 people in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro.

After the gang violently swept into the area in 2016, a heart symbol and “peace” were reportedly painted on barriers showing the gang’s new, expanded boundaries. Since Peixao took over, spotless streets, security taxes and strongly enforced order have become a feature of the Complexo de Israel, along with Star of David symbols etched on buildings — one of which can be seen all the way downtown in ritzy Avenida Brasil, Rio’s main thoroughfare — while verses from the Psalms are painted on prominent buildings.