Major Rocha



"Who wanna laugh must make laugh!"

- Major Rocha

Major Rocha, also known by his nickname Russo, is the main villain from Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad 2). He was portrayed by Sandro Rocha.

He is a corrupt police officer from Rio de Janeiro, who extorted money from the drugs dealers in the slums. With the many assaults on the slum, carried out by the BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion), the drugs dealers started losing their control over the slum, and their money with it. Colonel Nascimento, demoted from his command at BOPE and now Intelligence Subsecretary from the Public Security Secretary from Rio de Janeiro, believed this would finish the organized crime in the slums and break the corrupt police officers, but in the end he created a far worse monster. Rocha, without his income from the extortion, decides to kill the mediators and creates a militia of corrupt police officers that takes over the slum, offering benefits to the townsfolk in the slum in exchange for money. In Nascimento's words, people paid the militia to protect people from themselves. Anyone who disagreed with their rules was immediately executed in cold blood, and they blackmailed any witness to their crimes, before killing them as well.

Rocha never took total control over the slum, as this was part of a plan in the favor of corrupt politicians, among them the governor of Rio de Janeiro, who was a candidate for re-election and Fortunato, newscaster of a sensationalist program and also politician. The slums under the control of the militia were a key in creating “electoral corrals”, which would help the politicians to grow their popularity, politically benefiting from the situation to grant their election. Rocha enacts a plan to take over the “Tanque”, a region under control of drugs dealers that, if take over, would mean an significant raise of electors in their favor. To create a justification for a invasion, his men invade a police district disguised as criminals and steal all weapons from the place. Fortunato then uses his program to attribute the action to the drugs dealers, demanding an action from the Governor. The BOPE is ordered to carry out the operation, but Nascimento opposes to this, since there was no solid proof that the drugs dealer were in possession of the stolen weapons.

However, Rocha needed someone inside the BOPE for the plan to be successful. Fabio Barbosa, who was a member of the militia but disagreed with Rocha's way of carrying his business, suggests to reintegrate Mathias into the BOPE, since he considered him a friend and had trust on him. Fortunato move the strings to reintegrate Mathias, who is ordered to lead the operation. The operation is carried successfully, but they fail at finding the weapons. Mathias captures the last drugs dealer and tortures him to learn the location of the weapons, but Rocha intervenes, killing the dealer. Mathias demands an explanation and orders Rocha to tell who was his informer, but Rocha cowardly shoots Mathias on his back, killing him. During Mathias funeral, Nascimento talks with Fabio, asking him to tell if he knew who killed Mathias, but he simply tells that he considered Mathias a friend and has trust in justice.

Nascimento decides to find by himself who was the culprit, but he only discovers about the militia after talking with his son, who was living with Nascimento's rival, Professor Fraga, who was investigating the militia. Nascimento uses a telephone staple to hear Fraga's conversation with two journalists, who invaded one of the militia's bases. Rocha finds them spying on the place, torturing them and discovering about Fraga. The two are killed by Rocha's men, who burns their bodies and remove the teeth from their skulls to avoid identification. Rocha then orders his men to kill Fraga immediately. Nascimento, knowing he was surrounded by enemies and now aware of the situation, goes after Fraga, his son and ex-wife to protect them. Two men on a motorcycle shoots Fraga's car, but Nascimento shoots them, killing one. Fraga is not hit, but Nascimento's son end hit. On the hospital, Nascimento leaves his son and gives Fraga the tape with the entire conversation, then leaves the place. However, Rocha and his men go to the place and corner Nascimento's car in the street, shooting it to kill him. Nascimento was already aware that they would try to kill him, so he previously called some of the BOPE's men to protect him. They arrive at the place and fight back, saving Nascimento and killing Rocha's men, who is forced to retreat.

Fraga, who was also a politician, call a CPI (Inquiry Parliamentary Commission) to investigate the involvement of politicians with the armed militia acting on the slums, using his conversation as proof, and having Nascimento as witness. Thanks to his testimony, Fortunato was accused of active corruption, and ended arrested. The militia started a massive file-burning, killing all who knew about their dealings, even some of their members. Rocha, however, ends killed by Fabio Barbosa, who then assumes control of the militia.