Militia and drug trafficking exchange practices and sophisticate crimes

The scenes of attacks on buses and trains in the West Zone of Rio on the 23rd exposed one of the most violent aspects of criminal organizations in Brazil: the tactic of terrorizing the population. Criminal actions of this nature have been ordered by drug leaders for years, but are less common from militias. Four decades after its emergence, groups of police officers, firefighters, security guards, prison guards and military personnel, whether retired or active, became the same as drug trafficking gangs.

In this highly chaotic and practically out of control context, the remarkable structure of these armed groups is impressive. They demonstrate an effective division of labor, qualified management and strict internal control, allowing these organizations to gain full control of territories in underserved communities. To achieve this central objective, they introduce fear into the population even through informal courts that judge conduct according to their own interpretation of “law and order”.

The total absence of public power in these urban agglomerations controlled by militiamen or drug trafficking encourages the boldness of illicit businesses, which seem to know no limits. An example of this is the franchise model formatted by the largest criminal organizations in Brazil – Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Amigo dos Amigos, Comando Vermelho (CV) and Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP). Their “brands” were adopted by factions in nearby areas and have already reached other states.

Criminal businesses range from pay TV to cryptocurrencies

This expansion of criminal enterprises through the transfer of knowledge, access to supply channels and the authorized use of brands associated with terror is done through procedure manuals and the payment of “royalties”.

Far beyond the sale of narcotics and “protection”, the tentacles of the organizations and their franchisees are based on territorial domination and reach various types of illegal businesses and clandestine services, from pay TV, to cooking gas cylinders and even the flow of piped water from a state concessionaire.

For experts heard by People’s Gazette, this combination of areas occupied by individuals with heavy weapons, activities outsourced by illicit workers – such as motorcycle transport, sale of meals, sand and gravel mining – and money laundering describes a social, economic and cultural arrangement that challenges the State. They assess that combating this situation requires more than brute force, but also the rescue of quality public services in dominated areas and the promotion of societal principles.

“We are frightened by the images of armed factions circulating freely through the poor communities of Rio, carrying out tactical training with weapons and with their men in profile receiving instructions typical of military groups”, said Rogério Greco, secretary of public security in Minas Gerais and professor in the areas of security and criminal law. He also illustrates with the embarrassing and recurring landscape of spaces captive to crime covered by tangles of irregular wiring, the so-called “cats”.

Greco sees a clear imposition of the will of criminal leaders on populations without any legal control, which also requires combat at a cultural level. “Unfortunately, outlaws use the discourse of police brutality to protect themselves and expand their activities,” he said. He fears that the country will soon experience situations of extreme crime, as happened with the city of Medellín, in Colombia, which in the late 1980s became known as the most dangerous city in the world due to the fight between drug cartels. drugs.

Against this, the expert defends the alignment of the Judiciary, Executive and Legislative branches to make illegality recede.

Meanwhile, businesses thrive in the shadow of the domination of drug traffickers and militiamen, such as real estate agencies, cryptocurrency brokers, sponsorship of the training of criminal defenders in colleges and even podiatry clinics. Greco regrets that this scenario is indicating precisely the opposite of what was desired, aggravated by the inaction and lack of planning by the Ministry of Justice and by measures taken by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that prevent police officers from carrying out their mission in these locations.

“Judicial activism is making Brazil less safe. By establishing the supposed right of criminals not to be disturbed in their illicit activities, the STF condemns entire communities to live under the rule of drug traffickers, and ends up becoming, ultimately, the true adversary of honest and hard-working citizens, who pay taxes to that the State ensures public security instead of exposing it to violence”, observed deputy Marcel Van Hattem (Novo-RS). For deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), Rio is rescuing the State’s leniency that led to the strengthening of trafficking in communities in the 1980s.

The latest violent events in Rio and the climate of terror revealed the discomfort generated by the dominant presence of crime in the city, with freedom of action even inside prisons. Diogo Costa, president of think tank Instituto Millenium, highlighted the fact that faction leaders are able to hold videoconferences within the prison with high-speed connections and guaranteed battery power, to determine the execution of other criminals. “If criminal organizations enjoy this tranquility even inside prisons, where the force of the State should impose itself, hopes are very low indeed,” he said.

Like terror, the population is used as a human shield

In the assessment of retired colonel Fernando Montenegro, former commander of the occupation forces of Complexo do Alemão and author of the book “Kid Preto” (Ed. Ubook), the armed groups that operate in poor communities in the country have characteristics similar to those of terrorists in occupied territories, who use the population as a human shield. “Their local violence is extremely organized, non-state and diffuse. It is not restricted to actions of force, encompassing coercion and co-optation of people, including politicians and opinion makers,” he explained.

Fear prevents the population from reporting criminals and thus territorial control is consolidated as one of the historical and distinctive characteristics of the dynamics of armed groups in Rio de Janeiro. Montenegro adds that this reality has become “an unavoidable variable not only for security, but also important for public policies such as transport, housing, education and culture”.

The analyst noted that the dominance of crime in densely populated and deprived areas has gained increasingly challenging elements for the State. He noticed, over the years, a process of “hybridization”, with the militias incorporating the brutal violence of drug trafficking and, conversely, the traffickers adopting management practices for territorial governance taught by the militiamen. “To top it off, criminal organizations wage narrative warfare and manipulate information to gain an advantage,” he said.

British journalist Tom Wainwright, in his book Narconomics – How to Manage a Drug Cartel (2016), makes a comparison between the business sophistication of international drug trafficking and large legal multinational companies, such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. He suggests that market forces exert a much more powerful influence than government policies, and proposes that strategies to combat the illegal drug trade monitor variations in supply and demand.