The São Paulo Organ Harvest Scandal

The São Paulo Organ Harvest Scandal was a fictional documented and mentioned conflict event that occurred between late February to early March of 2012 in São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil. It was mentioned in The Outlaw’s Saga - Grand Theft Auto: Renegade and Far Cry: Scorched Earth.
== Description ==
The São Paulo Organ Harvest Scandal was a large-scale scandal, whereas, the corrupted organizations of the Crachá Preto paramilitary group and the corrupted U.F.E. police squad kidnapped random civilians and drifters, often from favelas, bringing them to a discreet location that was once the old Imperial Palace Hotel of São Paulo, and dissecting and removing them of their organs, such as liver, heart, and eyes and disposing of the bodies in bags, either by burning or dumping. The funds made from selling the organs on the black market went to profiting Victor Branco’s political campaign, as part of his scheme. Former disgruntled NYPD detective turned Branco bodyguard, Max Payne, was a direct opposition to the scandal.
== Event ==
=== February 16 - 28 ===
Although the scandal has been ongoing for an undisclosed amount of time, it has been going on for longer since before February 16, 2012. According to Giovanna Taveres, more bodies are showing up and people are going missing, suggesting that there are ongoing kidnappings of victims by the 22nd of February.
Around February 23rd, the Crachá Preto took heavy losses during a money theft from a ransom exchange between former NYPD detectives Max Payne and Raul Passos and the local gang, the Comando Sombra. Despite hauling at least $3,000,000 from the theft, the paramilitary group took heavy losses and still continued the harvesting, but now putting a target on Payne.
The harvest scandal did not come further into the light until the 27th of February, four days later. In the local Nova Esperança favela, after Fabiana Branco had recently been executed by the Comando Sombra leader, Serrano, the UFE suddenly attacked the favela, sending in riot troops and officers to capture or kill residents at their disposal. Payne was there, as well as Taveres and Marcelo Branco. While Payne remained on the loose, but killing several UFE cops in self-defense, Taveres and Branco were captured and held hostage by the UFE. Payne managed to survive the raids on the favela, and even witnessed the UFE arresting residents and shooting others dead on the streets in cold blood. Payne eventually discovered that the UFE and the CP were in cahoots, whereas, the UFE would sell the Cracha Preto people in exchange for funds and organs to sell respectively. The CP’s right-hand man, Milo Rego, proceeded to take Branco and Taveres into a nearby alleyway, where he necklaced Marcelo (trapped him in a stack of rubber tires covered in petrol oil and set it alight), burning him to death. Payne arrived in time to prevent Giovanna from experiencing the same fate, and killed Rego. The two escaped Nova Esperança, but enraged CP commander, Alvarez Nevés.
On the later evening of the 28th, Payne, having escorted Giovanna to safety in the hands of her lover and future father of her child, Passos, but having been abandoned, was picked up by local police officer, Wilson Da Silva, who explained to Max that the UFE had captured residents, but they were never booked, which Max corrected that they have handed them off to the CP. Da Silva then showed the old Imperial Palace Hotel, detailing that a lot of activity goes on with people going into the building, but it is not a police station and nobody ever comes back out. Max was then tasked to infiltrate the hotel ruins and find out why nobody leaves the hotel alive. Payne investigated much deeper and found evidence of their crimes with UFE, while also witnessing what they were doing to the captives: brutalizing and later killing and dissecting them. Serrano was amongst the captured, but Payne spared his life. After considerable investigating and killing more CP, Payne stumbled upon the operation room, where he saw famous plastic surgeon Arthur Fischer frantically putting away organs, horrifying and enraging Payne. Realizing what was happening, Max was about to act when Serrano walked in, also horrified by what he had just witnessed. Payne and Serrano gave each other a nod as he left Serrano alone to brutally murder Fischer with a scalpel. Max found an arsenal and decided to bring the entire building down and all the evil in it. After planting several charges of C-4 explosives, Max confronted Nevés himself on the rooftop over the crime, calling him a “sick fuck.” Nevés warned that he knew powerful people, but Max, enraged beyond comprehension and prepared to die for something right and just, yelled that his powerful people are not going to help him out of this situation, and blew the charges, causing the building to become unstable and collapse. Max fought his way to Nevés, but fell due to the tremors, allowing Nevés to get the advantage over him. Unfortunately for him, before he could kill Payne, he was suddenly shot in the head by Raul Passos, who had come back for Payne. Although Max was angry at Passos for abandoning him and supposedly being a part of the scandal, Passos revealed that he was part of Victor and Marcelo’s scheme to get their deceased older brother, Rodrigo to give them more money and they pressured him, but he did not know about an organ harvesting scheme. In the end, the two settled their differences and escaped in Nevés’ helicopter shortly before the entire hotel collapsed, forever putting the harvesting to rest.
== Aftermath ==
=== February 29 ===
Although the scheme has ended, the crimes have not. But that was going to change on the night of the 29th, when Payne had decided to confront Armando Becker, the UFE’s commander, and Branco himself at the UFE headquarters. Max illegally infiltrated the headquarters with Da Silva’s help as they knew that doing it the legal way would only put Da Silva’s life and family at risk as well as letting Becker and Branco win. After doing so, Max killed the man responsible for Rodrigo’s death, Bachmeyer and confronted Becker, but was stopped by Branco. The two managed to stun Payne and escape to the airport.
=== March 1 ===
Payne stormed the airport in his attempt to catch and kill Becker and Branco. In the end, Becker was killed in his confrontation against Payne, while Branco, with the help of Da Silva, was stopped by Payne when he used Becker’s discarded grenade launcher to destroy his plane, allowing the police to arrest Branco and give him a speedy trial.
=== March 8 ===
A week later, Payne was allowed a vacation in Bahía after a long couple of weeks of work. On a news report, it was revealed that the UFE had been disbanded indefinitely, while Victor himself was found dead, hanging in his cell the day before. Whether it was a suicide to avoid spending life on prison or retribution for the kidnapping and murdering of many missing loved ones is unknown. With this, the scheme was finally put to rest.
=== After 2012 ===
In the saga canon, Max eventually returned to New York City from Brazil, no longer needed there, and wrote his book, titled after himself: “Max Payne,” detailing his story from 1998 - 2012, even going into full detail of what his actions were during the timeline of the scheme and how he stopped it. Joel Wallace and Calvin Rook were readers of his book, but Rook took more fascination in it.
== Gallery ==
== Trivia ==
* The scheme is featured in Max Payne 3.