CRIME GANG CLOSES RIO STORES, SCHOOLS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Stores and schools across Rio closed Monday,
reportedly on orders from the city's most powerful crime gang to protest
prison conditions of its jailed leader.

Police increased street patrols and no violence was reported, but fear shut
down much of the city.

From trendy Ipanema beach to the city's poor north side, scores of shops
didn't open or quickly closed. The Estacio de Sa college let out classes
and canceled scheduled exams because students and teachers stayed home.

Media reports said the shutdown order came from traffickers linked to Luiz
Fernando da Costa, Brazil's most notorious drug lord.

His supporters were said to want better jail conditions for da Costa, who
is better known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar -- Seaside Freddy in Portuguese.

Drug gangs control hundreds of Rio's favelas, or shantytowns, and often
order nearby shops and schools to close when a prominent gang member is
arrested or killed. But Monday's shutdown was much more widespread,
affecting vast swaths of the city.

Police pleaded for storekeepers not to cave in to the pressure, and some
reopened after shutting down for several hours. Store owners declined to
answer questions from a reporter.

"We cannot tolerate this coercion," Frederico Caldas, a spokesman for the
Rio de Janeiro military state police, said in a radio interview.

Earlier this month, da Costa led a bloody uprising in the maximum-security
Bangu I prison in Rio. Members of his Red Command drug gang took hostages
and killed four leaders of a rival gang before surrendering.

Rio de Janeiro State Security Chief Roberto Aguiar said da Costa intended
to unite the warring criminal factions under his command. He said da Costa
had bought the cooperation of guards and had continued to run drug
operations and gang activities by cell phone from the prison.

After the rebellion, da Costa was transferred to a small top-security cell
in a police camp, where Aguiar said he was monitored around the clock.