Brutal reckoning at the airport: Bitcoin entrepreneur dies in a hail of bullets
São Paulo (Brazil) - Brutal reckoning at São Paulo's Guarulhos Airport. A Brazilian businessman with excellent connections in the criminal underworld was shot dead by masked assailants. The man killed had many enemies.

It was disturbing scenes that took place at São Paulo's international airport on Friday afternoon, BBC reported.
In front of numerous witnesses, wealthy businessman Vinicius Gritzbach was gunned down. Images from a surveillance camera show the crypto entrepreneur strolling to the cab with his suitcase outside the arrivals area at Terminal 2. Suddenly, two masked men jump out of a car, rush towards the man in his mid-thirties and immediately open fire. The financial expert dies in a hail of bullets.
Meanwhile, panic broke out among the bystanders and people fled into the terminal building. The hit squad was able to escape in the chaos.
What was left behind was the body of the Bitcoin entrepreneur, who is said to have links to what is probably Brazil's most dangerous criminal organization - the notorious Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).
The PCC syndicate controls large parts of São Paulo, a metropolis with a population of 22 million, and is deeply entangled in the flourishing cocaine trade in Latin America and beyond. The PCC has now also gained a foothold in Europe - in the Portuguese capital Lisbon alone, it is said to have more than 1,000 members.



Bitcoin trader of death: Who was Vinicius Gritzbach?
According to all that is known, Vinicius Gritzbach, who was killed, was a high-ranking member of the financial arm of the PCC syndicate until recently. The crypto expert is said to have laundered money for his cronies on a grand scale. Brazilian media speak of a "key figure" in organized crime.
But the financial expert fell out of favor, reported CNN. He is said to have embezzled large amounts of drug money. But the affair threatened to come to light. Gritzbach reacted and, according to media reports, ordered the murder of his own boss, "Cara Preta", and his confidant "Sem Sangue" in December 2021.
In February 2022, the financial expert was questioned by the police about the murder of his boss. Gritzbach denied the crime. He did not know who he was doing business with, the businessman claimed, saying that he thought the underworld figures were footballers.
He remained in custody until 2023, hoping until the end to negotiate a deal so that he could leave the country as a free man. He cooperated fully with the police.
But the syndicate neither forgets nor forgives. Vinicius Gritzbach was apparently put on a death list and shot when he returned from vacation.