In September, police investigating a wave of killings in the northern Rio de Janeiro suburbs followed a tip to the isolated scrubland near the massive Duque de Caxias oil refinery.
Police presumed the killings were linked to turf battles between criminal gangs in the run-up to municipal elections the following month.
They found a different explanation buried beneath the grass: a system of tubes to siphon fuel from underground pipelines leading from the refinery, owned by state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA).
Brazil Energy Insight 
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