US newspaper compares PCC to Italian mafias: ‘Global cocaine power’

Report from ‘The Wall Street Journal’ highlights the activities of the PCC criminal faction. Reproduction/WSJ The First Command of the Capital (PCC) was compared to the Italian mafia, with the efficiency of a multinational, by the North American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, on Monday (20). According to the publication, the faction has become one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. It would be “reshaping global cocaine flows from South America to Europe’s busiest ports and moving toward the United States.” US authorities identified people linked to the PCC in the states of Florida, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Tennessee. In Massachusetts, the federal prosecutor’s office announced charges last year against 18 Brazilians believed to be linked to the faction. Currently, the criminal group has 40,000 members and has become the largest in the Americas, operating in 30 countries and on all continents, except Antarctica. PCC has ‘compliance’ core and social networks According to the newspaper, there is a discussion in the country for US President Donald Trump to classify the PCC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. However, the Brazilian government is against the measure. The Wall Street Journal highlights that the faction operates as a multinational, with a “maximum level of organization.” “PCC members maintain a low profile and businesslike, seeking fortune, not fame. […] New members adhere to a strict internal code of conduct, and their entry rituals are sometimes carried out via videoconference”, defines the publication. Read also: Former head of the SP PM is cited in an investigation into the role of police officers in the security of a bus company linked to the PCC PCC Pastors To recruit members, obtain money and open routes for trafficking, PCC members would be going to remote regions of Brazil pretending to be pastors. “Many evangelicals in the country adhere to the so-called theology of prosperity — the belief that wealth is a sign of divine favor —, which helps the faction to advance in poor communities”, says the newspaper. In 2023, the faction was accused of creating at least 7 churches to launder drug money in Rio Grande do Norte. In addition, the group would also launder money in gas stations, real estate funds, motels, dealerships and construction companies. FIND OUT MORE: Where are the gas stations investigated in the mega operation against the PCC To recruit more members, detainees receive promises of legal support from lawyers from the faction, known as the “tie brigade”. The group also recruits people outside of prisons, in countries such as Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Thus, the faction has expanded its operations to the Amazon. “We are in the hands of drug traffickers now,” Jeffersson Ribeiro told The Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the PCC became “a regulatory agency” and a “government of the illegal world”, organizing international trafficking. “No member is above the rules in a faction that values ‘equality’ and ‘unity’, but anyone can prosper as long as they remain loyal”, said Bruno Manso, an expert on the group and co-author of “The War: The Rise of the PCC and the World of Crime in Brazil” to the newspaper. human trafficking, illegal fishing, predatory hunting and enslavement of indigenous communities. The structure of the organization is one of the factors that allowed rapid expansion without the need for direct territorial control, according to the publication. For this reason, it would also be more difficult to dismantle the group. Also know: Civil Police operation arrests three suspects of being part of the PCC criminal faction in the Valley and region.

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