RIO DE JANEIRO — A second prison riot in a week in the Brazilian Amazon left at least 33 inmates dead Friday in the northern state of Roraima.

The bloodshed, coming just days after 56 people were killed in a massacre at a prison in the city of Manaus, adds to fears about an intensifying war between drug gangs for control of Brazil’s cocaine trade.

Reflecting the brutal nature of the conflict, some of the victims at the Monte Cristo Agricultural Penitentiary in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, were decapitated, had their hearts torn out, or were dismembered, according to local news reports.

The latest episode is thought to involve fighting between First Capital Command, a gang that has roots in the prisons of São Paulo in southeast Brazil, and supporters of Red Command, a drug trafficking ring that has long had sway in Rio de Janeiro.

The drug gangs operate from inside prisons and on the streets of many Brazilian cities.

New York Times