Warped TV presenter 'ordered violent murders of rivals to boost ratings'

A Tony Soprano figure and popular TV host allegedly moonlighted as drugs-lord, ordering hits on his rivals to boost his own ratings.

hosted the controversial TV show Canal Livre. Broadcast daily, at lunchtime, it featured gory, raw, and rapid crime content with nothing left to the imagination.

But police grew suspicious when the newsanchor and his crew were first on the scene in a string brutal murders and detectives soon began to believe that he had taken to creating in a bid to keep viewers hooked.

For instance, when one corpse was found burnt and bound in nearby jungle, Canal Livre arrived to the scene with such speed that the reporter told how the body "smells like barbecue.”

He added, addressing the camera man, “Yes, my friend, it’s here. Look. Here is the body,” pointing at the charred human remains.

The were Souza's rivals in his other profession - drug trafficking. Authorities believe he ordered at least five murders. Each hit, it is alleged, furthered his triple-threat career as a gangster, a TV presenter and a politician.

It eliminated a rival drug trafficker, boosted his show's ratings and demonstrated his claim that the region he represented was plagued with crime.

Souza, who was once expelled from the police force following a scandal, always claimed the allegations were part of a smear campaign against him.

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Police told the Associated Press the orders to execute came from Souza and his son and that TV crews from the show, now off the air, were alerted so they could get to the scene first.

State Security Secretary Francisco Cavalcanti also said: "On several occasions they fabricated facts. They fabricated news."

In August 2009, local authorities accused the 51-year-old of suspicion of masterminding the murders.

A former bodyguard was arrested and accused of nine murders, and he admitted at least one of them had been broadcast on the show.

Police then raided Souza's house, uncovering several assault rifles. Souza was arrested in October 2009. But, with a seat in the Amazonas state legislature, elected three times, Souza remained free until his death from a heart attack at 51 in 2010, taking the truth with him to his grave. However, his son Rafael was arrested on charges of murder, drug trafficking and illegally possessing a gun.