I left São Paulo in 2015, when ride-hailing apps were still a novelty in Brazil, so I wasn’t there when this business went through a boom. Since no company is allowed to offer this kind of service where I currently live (Dublin), I only got to experience these apps very recently, when I went back to my home town for the holidays.

And I could see it became a very well-established business. Nearly everybody I know in SP uses apps like Uber, 99 (which was recently bought out by Chinese Didi Chuxing), Cabify, etc. So I started using them too, marvelled by a trend that I had only followed through articles I had read or written about it (I was a tech journalist for the past 5 yrs 5 mos).

When in the cars, I did the opposite of what my friends usually do and spoke a lot with the drivers. I was legitimately curious, especially about their night shifts. I wanted to understand what were the pros and cons, so I ended up engaging into all kinds of subjects. And one day I came across this driver who made a comment about the “drug situation”.

You see, in São Paulo, things like marijuana and cocaine can be found in places known as “biqueiras” (what we call drug dens). They are often located near (or inside) poor communities and it is sort of dangerous to get there by foot or by car. And in addition to the risks of being mugged or kidnapped, one must also beware of the police, of course.

So what I learned is that apparently, some clients are using the apps as a shield to buy drugs with minimal or close to no hassle. The users call the drivers and either ask them to make a quick stop at a biqueira or simply log in the biqueira’s address as their final destination.

It usually happens at night, but I heard stories from daytime drivers as well. As soon as I heard about this practice from the first driver, I started asking about it every time I needed a ride. And all of them had already experienced it.

“I got a passenger once that asked me to do a quick stop when we were already on our way,” a driver told me. “I asked him if he was going to buy drugs because he should just tell me. If that was the case, I’d drop him off before arriving at the 'biqueira' and let him get in again at the next corner. And that’s what happened.”

Another one told me that he was once pulled over by a drug dealer, who asked if “everything was all right” and if the driver was being “respected”. When he got a positive response, the thug informed the driver that he had warned everybody in the area not to mess with app drivers — either because they are bringing in clients or because they are hard-working people.

São Paulo is a notoriously violent city and is part of a violent state. The most recent edition of Institute of Applied Economics Research’s “Violence Map,” released last year, shows that 5,427 people were killed in the state in 2015. The research shows that the region has actually seen fewer crimes in the past 10 years, seeing that in 2005 there were 8,870 homicides in the state. But some researchers say that the organised crime itself is partially responsible for improving these figures.

“The bigger the competition in the drug business, the more violent the business gets,” researcher Bruno Paes Manso explained at the time to G1, a well-known Brazilian news portal. “What happened was that since 2000, a criminal faction started articulating this business in the region, became hegemonic in this drug business and the incidents ended — decreased at least.”

I brought this up in an attempt to make it clear of how “civilised” crime can be in Brazil. This is a classic example of the Brazilian’s genius, a nation that has seen the crime brought down by the criminals themselves. This also might help understand why the broad use of taxi-like services as a means of getting into the drug dens might not even be regarded as newsworthy there: it’s just obvious.

But what about the drivers? Are they safe? Are they committing a crime by driving clients into drug dens? I got in touch with PR representatives of Uber, 99, and Cabify, the main players in São Paulo’s ride-hailing business. I asked them if there is any kind of training covering a situation like this, but as soon as I explained the topic of my article, none of them got back to me.

In my chats with drivers, at least two of them recalled instances when they had driven their passengers to biqueiras and were later asked if they wanted some cocaine. People usually don’t even wait to get out of the car to start snorting it. But wait, there is good news too: at least the “no smoking” sign is always respected by users, so no marijuana smell in the cars, right?