A Brazilian man wanted for killing 11 people in 2015 has been arrested in New Hampshire, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29, was wanted on an Interpol Red Notice. He was convicted in Brazil two months ago for the massacre of 11 people in the city of Fortaleza.
Vidal was detained Monday in Rye, N.H. without incident, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officers picked him up because he was in the U.S. illegally.
“We are proud to have taken this notorious criminal, convicted of participating in multiple heinous murders in Brazil, off our streets,” said Todd Lyons, director of ICE’s Boston office.
Vidal was a military police officer in Brazil. In November 2015, a fellow officer was gunned down in the city of Fortaleza on Brazil’s northeastern coast.
Dozens of officers, including Vidal, retaliated by killing 11 people in the neighborhood of Curio. Some of the victims were suspected killers, while others had been accused of unrelated minor offenses.
The military cops choosing to act as judge, jury and executioner sparked outrage in the city and across Brazil — and the slaughter became known as the “Chacina do Curio,” or “Curio massacre.”
After a lengthy prosecution, Vidal was convicted in June. He had already fled to the United States at that point and was tried and convicted in absentia. Vidal was sentenced to 275 years and 11 months in Brazilian prison.
U.S. immigration officers tracked Vidal to Rye, a town of 5,500 people in the southeast corner of New Hampshire, just 50 miles north of Boston.
“The apprehension of this very dangerous foreign fugitive is an outstanding example of the professionalism and expertise of [ICE agents in] Boston,” Lyons said.
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