Rogério Jeremias de Simone, known as “Gegê do Mangue,” was one of the most prominent figures in the history of Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). During the 2010s, prosecutors and police described him as one of the organization’s highest-ranking members outside prison, operating while much of the faction’s senior leadership remained incarcerated.
According to the Superior Court of Justice, Gegê was included in the PCC’s so-called “Sintonia Final Geral,” the organization’s highest leadership structure identified in an investigation into its hierarchy. The judicial record placed him below Marcola and other senior imprisoned figures within that structure.
By 2018, prosecutors were describing Gegê as the organization’s principal leader on the streets. The Public Prosecutor’s Office told Folha de S.Paulo that he was considered number three in the overall hierarchy, but number one among PCC figures operating outside the prison system. This distinction reflected the difference between the faction’s imprisoned leadership and its external operations.
Investigators also connected Gegê and Fabiano Alves de Souza, known as “Paca,” to the PCC’s activities beyond São Paulo. At the time of their deaths, authorities suspected that the two were operating in Paraguay and Bolivia and coordinating drug and weapons movements toward Brazil. Those descriptions reflected police and prosecutorial investigations rather than convictions establishing every alleged activity.
Gegê had previously spent years in prison. He was released in February 2017 following a habeas corpus decision, shortly before he was scheduled to face trial in a double-homicide case. His preventive detention was later ordered again, but authorities were unable to locate him before his death.
His growing influence outside prison became an important subject in investigations into the PCC. The Superior Court of Justice record describing the faction’s hierarchy identified Gegê as part of its final leadership structure, illustrating the importance authorities attributed to his position within the organization.
On February 15, 2018, Gegê and Paca were killed in Aquiraz, Ceará. Their bodies were found in a remote area of an Indigenous reserve after the two had traveled through the region. Investigators initially considered the possibility that they had been victims of an ambush by rival criminals.
Another investigative hypothesis concerned an internal dispute within the PCC. Prosecutors examined whether Gegê's death could have been connected to the killing of another imprisoned PCC member, Edilson Borges Nogueira, known as “Biroska.” Authorities also considered whether Gegê's growing influence outside prison had contributed to tensions within the organization. These were investigative hypotheses and should not be presented as established facts without a final judicial finding.
The deaths of Gegê and Paca became one of the most significant episodes in the history of the PCC's internal disputes. Their position within the organization, combined with their activities outside Brazil, made the killings the subject of investigations extending across several states and countries.
In 2025, Brazilian police arrested a suspect in São Paulo in connection with Gegê's killing. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the Ceará courts had issued a warrant for the suspect since 2018, although authorities had not publicly detailed his precise alleged role in the murders.
Rogério Jeremias de Simone died in February 2018, but his name remains present in Brazilian judicial records concerning the PCC's organizational structure. His case illustrates the separation between the faction's imprisoned leadership and figures who were identified by authorities as responsible for maintaining its activities outside prison.
SOURCES
Superior Court of Justice of Brazil — STJ
Judicial record describing the PCC leadership structure
Folha de S.Paulo
Gegê do Mangue and Paca: PCC leaders killed in Ceará
Folha de S.Paulo
Police arrest suspect in Gegê do Mangue's killing
Ministry of Justice Digital Library
Study documenting the PCC's organizational structure
National Council of Justice — CNJ
Investigation into PCC organization and finances
