GLO leaves out important ports for cargo transport in Brazil

The Law and Order Guarantee Operation (GLO) recently created by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to use the military to combat cocaine trafficking carried out by criminal factions is focused on just three ports, in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. But it leaves aside another 410 Brazilian ports that account for around 80% of international maritime transport in Brazil.

In other words, inspection focused on the ports of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Itaguaí (RJ) and Santos (SP) could make criminals move their operations to other ports, according to retired general Marco Aurélio Vieira, former special secretary. of Sports from the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), during the Assunto Capital program, from People’s Gazette.

“Brazil has 8,500 kilometers of coastline, so, if you decide to do this in the port of Rio de Janeiro, do you think you can prevent this (trafficking) from happening in others?”, said the general. Click here and see the complete program. “It’s as if you announced to traffickers that, from a certain date, you would not allow them to use certain ports and airports,” he said.

Operation will not interrupt traffic even at inspected ports, says prosecutor

Furthermore, even in supervised ports, the operation will hardly be able to prevent international cocaine trafficking. This is because, in practice, even with military reinforcements, it is impossible to inspect all suspicious containers without causing a collapse in Brazilian maritime transport.

“Roughly speaking, the drugs that are exported go in containers – and there are thousands of them in each port. So, by brute force, GLO, if it succeeds, will inspect around 1% of the containers in these ports and the results are unlikely”, stated São Paulo Public Prosecutor Marcio Sergio Christino. He was one of the first members of the Public Ministry to investigate the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), a faction that is one of the largest operators of the cocaine route. Christino is also the author of the book “Blood Ties: The Secret History of the CCP” (Ed. Matrix; 2017).

According to the Waterway Statistics of the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq), between January and September of this year, 93.3 million containers were handled in Brazilian ports. The Port of Santos alone was responsible for the movement of 26 million units, followed by the Port Terminals of Navegantes (SC) with 11.4 million and the Port of Paranaguá with 8.6 million.

Port authorities use X-ray machines to select containers for inspection. But inspecting a single unit takes hours, as all the merchandise has to be unloaded and then reloaded manually.

“The criminal factions don’t care about this inspection, because it is almost impossible for the Navy to find the containers that are loaded with cocaine. When there is a seizure made by the Federal Revenue Service (RFB), for example, it is because there was a previous investigation and information regarding where the drugs are. Therefore, by chance, it is very unlikely that the GLO will have any results”, says the prosecutor.

The volume of transport at GLO ports is an impediment

Since November 6, GLO has employed 1,100 Brazilian Navy personnel to inspect people and cargo in three of the 413 public and private ports and terminals in Brazil. Another 800 sailors work on vessels to prevent criminals from accessing ports using small boats.

The activities are being implemented in the Ports of Santos (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Itaguaí (RJ), which together accounted for the movement of 148.6 million tons between January and September this year.

This total is equivalent to 21.8% of the 680 million tons transported on international routes from all national ports and maritime terminals, according to data from the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq).

Two of the main national ports, the Porto Madeira Maritime Terminal, in Maranhão, responsible for loading and transporting 119 million tons, and the Tubarão Terminal, in Espírito Santo, with 56 million, were left out of the GLO.

Despite the less expressive volume of cargo, the Bahian ports of Aratu and Salvador, responsible for, respectively, 5 and 3 million tons, were also not included in the operation. Since the beginning of the year, Bahia has faced a serious public security crisis with an increase in crime related to drug trafficking.

Andean cocaine passes through Brazil and goes to Europe and Africa

Ports are the main vector for the export of cocaine from Andean countries to Europe through Brazil. This is because cargo ships leaving the country for Europe can carry hundreds of kilograms, even tons, of cocaine at once without attracting attention. It is much more, for example, than what the so-called “drug mules” can carry, people who board flights carrying cocaine in their suitcases or hidden on their bodies.

According to Christino, the criminal faction Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, is mainly responsible for the export of cocaine in national ports – around 90%. He explained that the faction allied itself with Bolivian producers so that the drug could reach the rich European market.

Comando Vermelho (CV) also has its share of cocaine exports, but operates in ports in the north of the country to transport production that comes from Peru. The prosecutor states that CV has greater prominence in internal trafficking, which uses the coast of Northeast Brazil to get drugs to the Southeast.

Last year, 25 tons of cocaine were seized in Brazilian ports by the Federal Revenue Service. The port of Santos was the main seizure point, with 16.4 tons found. According to European authorities, Santos is one of the biggest points in the world for sending cocaine to the continent. There is no data on the ports of Rio de Janeiro.

But smaller ports are also used. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Report, released in July 2022, reinforces the prosecutor’s information: the document says that ports located in the North and Northeast have also become warehouses for international cocaine trafficking.

In addition to transporting drugs among food and other cargo in containers, there are volumes of drugs that can be accommodated by highly trained divers in the hulls and submerged compartments of ships.

Currently, traffickers use ships heading to Europe, but with stops in African ports to evade inspections from countries such as Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. The main destinations for drugs leaving Brazil are Spain and Portugal.

The strategies and duration of the GLO

In principle, the Navy announced that the actions within the scope of the GLO aim to reinforce the inspection of people and goods in ports. The action aims to increase the capabilities of the Federal Revenue Service and the Federal Police to inspect the containers that will be shipped. In total, 750 marines were deployed to the Ports of Rio de Janeiro and Itaguaí and 350 to Santos.

In addition, 20 vessels are expected to operate, such as armored boats, large patrol vessels and jet skis. The idea is to prevent small boats loaded with cocaine from approaching ships and illegally shipping the drug.

According to Christino, anti-trafficking operations can only generate effective results if they are focused on investigative actions. But he said he does not know whether investigations will be carried out within the scope of GLO’s actions.

However, without the work of collecting elements and seeking privileged information about the cargoes, it is possible, but unlikely, that the GLO will generate the desired effects. “The use of gross mass to carry out an inspection action as a way of inhibiting trafficking in itself does not seem like a good strategy to me,” he stated.

The Law and Order Guarantee Operation was decreed on November 1st by the Federal Government in response to waves of violence in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia – even though the northeastern state is not the target of any of the announced actions. It began on November 6th and the activities are expected to continue until May 3rd, 2024.