Criminal Code follows Brazilian Federal Police officers investigating larger-than-life bank robbers who are conspiring something unprecedented with a joint venture between two rival gangs. The series is currently streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Benício partners with Suellen for their first case together, as he continues to find the killer of his late partner Santos. Meanwhile, Rossi greenlights unorthodox methods to solve crime at his station.
A new agent joins the team, and Benício explains the dynamics of organized crime they’re to contend with. Soulless, the guy Benício wants to hunt down, meets up with his former colleagues.
After two new DNA samples are discovered, Benício and Suellen follow Roleta, but their hunt ends with Suellen getting gravely injured as they also lose Roleta, who’s hacked to pieces by other policemen.
Benício leads the investigation alone as Suellen recovers. He hears word of a major heist and Soulless changes tack. Benício and Suellen collect additional DNA samples. Yuri and Rossi discuss the Ghost Gang and Moreira is reassigned.
Yuri can’t cope with the recent events and relocates to Brasilia Federal Police headquarters. Meanwhile, Suellen and Benício uncover Soulless’ real name, his past, and his family. As they get close to his family, Soulless goes for the offense but misses.
Isaac and Soulless are at odds with each other as Benício and Suellen contend with family matters. Suellen decides to separate from her husband Fê. Meanwhile, Rossi’s department suffers from the actions of the traitor João.
The final episode of Criminal Code sees a major showdown between the Federal police and the gangs, as the Ambassador is successfully broken out of Tacumbú Penitentiary and Soulless is apprehended by Benício.
Criminal Code ending explained in detail:
Who killed Santos?
25 prisoners escaped Foz Do Iguaçu Penitentiary in a mass prison break, and they were all gang members and expert bank robbers working for the Organization — a criminal network.
During the prison break, Benício’s partner was killed by one of the members of the Organization — a guy who goes by the title of Soulless.
Santos had a bit too much to drink the night before his death, something that he was peer pressured into by Benício himself, which the detective now believes led to Santos making an error that proved fatal for him.
Ever since his death, Benício became hell-bent on finding Soulless. His quest to find him and get some justice for his late partner/friend is a constant thread throughout the entirety of Criminal Code.
What is the Organization’s plan?
The Organization put their competition out of life when they killed Riyad, the one who oversaw the trafficking of cocaine going through Pedro Juan. He was the king of the border and decided what went in and out.
The Organization wondered why must they pay so much fortune to Riyad when they could just treat him like competition — who they could take out. And that’s exactly what they did when they had Riyad killed.
However, they forgot to deal with the Ambassador, the top dog drug dealer who is from Brazil but whose business grew in Paraguay. At the beginning of Criminal Code, he is locked up in the Tacumbú Penitentiary in Asuncíon.
He went crazy when they killed Riyad, so he gave his men orders, and war between his empire and the Organization began, in the process, many heads rolled, and the Organization couldn’t get their product across the border at all.
To broker peace and partnership between the two enemy criminal networks, the Organization sent men with an offer of 20 million — a part of the 40 million to be robbed from the Proguard vault in Ciudad Del Este.
The Ambassador accepts the offer but what he needs in exchange is his breakout from the Penitentiary before he’s extradited to Brazil, where he would be transferred to a Federal prison and won’t be able to continue his operations.
So the Ambassador’s gang, plus the Organization and the Ghost Gang, all come together to pull off this prison break, eventually succeeding in doing so.
The Foz de Iguaçu Federal Police does their best and lose some of their men while detaining and killing many of the gang members.
However, the Ambassador manages to slip away from the grasp. Criminal Code season 1 concludes with a loss for the Federal police but also enough victories to earn Rossi’s team praise and the green light to go after the Ghost Gang.
Is Moreira a mole?
At the beginning of Criminal Code, Moreira seems to be the number one suspect for the mole within the Brazilian Federal Police. However, he’d been a mole at the Organization, infiltrating it to the highest of ranks as an undercover agent.
Another cop, inspired by him, infiltrated into the Organization but by the time he got caught, it was too late for Moreira to find that out as well. He was the one tasked with shooting the mole dead, which he did.
He later staged his death and made it look like got burnt to death in a fire. Later, he got suspended and was sent by Chief Wladimir to Foz, only posing as a consultant who in reality keeps an eye on Rossi and his team.
He keeps working the case tails both policemen and infiltrates the Ambassador’s gang, becoming an instrumental and one of the most interesting characters to follow in Criminal Code.
He’s later spotted and recognized by a member of the Organization but manages to escape the Ambassador’s farm, also collecting key information about their big mission.
The real mole in Foz is João Nascimento, a total rookie who’s the son of a senator and overtly eager to get some field action right after graduating from the academy and becoming a Fed.
He’s prone to the bling and glitz and a member of the Ghost Gang, Amaro, spots it. He uses his weakness of João to turn him into a rat, buying him out with money and gifts.
In return, they extract from him, information that keeps the Ghost Gang one step ahead of the police, and later helps them successfully break the Ambassador out of the Penitentiary in the Criminal Code finale.
He’s finally nabbed by Moreira, who’s been on to him for a while. The evidence he provides checks out and the suspicions about Moreira at Foz are lifted.
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