By May 14 the attacks had spread to other Brazilian states including Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais and Bahia (this without direct links to the PCC criminal organisation).

The wave of violence, amongst the worst in Brazil's history, received broad national and international media coverage, and this fact allied to the lack of information from the São Paulo state government caused mass panic among the population.

The violence represented the bloodiest assault, worse than Rio de Janeiro, of its kind in the history of Brazil's richest state, São Paulo, and the news has reached the international media.

The lack of surveillance to prevent prisoners from communicating with criminals on the outside allowed them a powerful tool to spread information and coordinate uprisings and attacks in the state.

The waves of attacks were orchestrated by PCC leaders supposedly in jail, using said mobile phones, but it is arguable that the general chaos encouraged other criminals to take advantage of the situation.

The ensuing traffic jams is the greatest of this year (195 km or 122 miles) and that fear was spread to the population mostly due to the massive coverage by the media, who may have exaggerated the situation.