Navy tries to combat international cocaine trafficking in ports

The Navy’s Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) operation in the Ports of Santos (SP), Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Itaguaí (RJ), which began this Monday (6), focuses on combating to international cocaine trafficking that uses Brazilian ports as a route to Europe.

The operation is a political response by the government to the growing wave of violence in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. It has the potential to stifle one of the most important sources of income for criminal factions, such as Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, but it should not solve the problem of territorial control of favelas and needy communities in the country.

The federal government announced that 1,100 Brazilian Navy soldiers will be employed to contain the trafficking operation. They must reinforce the inspection of people and goods on land at ports and increase the capabilities of the Federal Revenue Service and the Federal Police to inspect containers.

But it is in the water that reinforcement should make the biggest difference. At least 20 vessels, such as armored boats, large patrol ships and jet skis, were mobilized to prevent traffickers from approaching cargo ships using small boats to illegally ship cocaine.

According to data from the Federal Revenue, the Port of Santos alone was responsible for 17 of the almost 47 tons of cocaine seized in Brazilian ports in 2022. The number represents more than 36% of the drugs seized in the country. In the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Itaguaí, in the same year, 1.4 and 2,178 tons were seized – respectively.

Where does cocaine come from and how does it reach ports?

Organized crime uses several ways to get cocaine to the European continent: whether by bribing port officials, hiring divers or placing large quantities of cocaine in containers, inside and outside the port, without the knowledge of the owners or companies. carriage.

With the intensification of the cocaine trafficking route between Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, gangs from these countries created a segmented and cooperative route that has come to be nicknamed “Narcosur”.

Peru, Colombia and Bolivia are the world’s largest producers of cocaine and base paste. Their cartels bring the drug to the Brazilian border through Paraguay and the Amazon.

Once in Brazil, Brazilian factions are responsible for transporting the drugs to the ports. This happens through trucks, cars and small planes. Boarding ships and disembarking in ports in Europe and Africa is done in partnership with European gangs, according to investigations by the Federal Police.

Traffickers use containers to transport hundreds of kilos of cocaine at once

The largest volumes of drugs on the maritime cocaine route are taken to Europe in containers or heavy loads carried on ships. A single shipment can contain more than a ton of cocaine.

One of the techniques most used by criminals is to sneak drugs into the port area hidden in cars. Once inside the cargo terminal, traffickers open specific containers and hide the drugs.

Cocaine can even be found in smaller quantities inside backpacks or hidden under the clothes of ship crew, who take the drug to their cabins.

The presence of marines carrying out searches at port entrances and inside terminals has the potential to make this type of action difficult for criminals.

It is not possible to inspect all suspicious containers

Another modality is called “Rip on, rip off”. It involves inserting cocaine into containers before they arrive at the port. Truck drivers are co-opted by gangs, divert vehicles from the roads and park trucks with containers in warehouses where they are located. criminals. They then insert the drug into the cargo without the owner of the shipment knowing anything. The seals on the containers are replaced with false seals. The containers are then taken normally into the port and mixed with other cargo.

The Federal Revenue Service knows the tactic and passes the trucks through an x-ray scanner that identifies suspicious loads. The “contaminated” container is then taken to a special area, where its cargo is removed and subjected to sniffer dogs.

The problem is that this process is very slow. Navy teams must increase the Federal Revenue’s inspection capacity, but even so it would not be possible to inspect all suspicious containers, according to a source linked to the operation. If all containers were inspected, there could be a collapse in shipping traffic at ports.

Drug trafficking “fishes” for drugs near ports

Among the methods used by drug trafficking, drug “fishing” consists of taking drugs to ships that are not moored in the port, but rather anchored a few kilometers from the coast waiting to dock or set sail.

Traffickers approach these ships in small boats filled with cocaine. Crews from previously co-opted cargo ships throw ropes and “fish” bales of cocaine from small boats. The drugs are then hidden in the cargo ship’s facilities.

In the case of the Port of Santos and the Port of Rio de Janeiro, for example, crime finds a more favorable scenario when there are favelas located on the seafront nearby. Boats full of drugs usually depart from these favelas.

The massive use of boats and Navy vessels equipped with radars has great potential to inhibit this type of trafficking.

Drugs are even hidden by divers in the hulls of ships

A new method of hiding drugs in the hull of ships has been highlighted in several recent seizures in Brazil. Also according to the Federal Revenue, from 2018 to 2022, almost 5 tons of the total cocaine seized were discovered in flooded compartments located in the hulls of ships, below the water line.

For this to happen, a diver hired by the crime opens the grille of the compartment known as the sea chest and ties the drug inside. The sea tank helps float the freighter, cool the engines and drain the internal hydraulic system.

The drug travels wrapped in adhesive tape and plastic bags, separated into tablets, weighing an average of 1 kg each. Another diver is called by organized crime when the cargo arrives at the destination port. This year, almost three tons of cocaine hidden in the hulls of freighters were seized.

The Navy has a Group of Combat Divers (Grumec), whose original function is to insert explosive charges into the hulls of enemy ships. They would have the capacity to monitor this type of trafficking. When questioned by the report, the Navy did not take a position on the issue nor did it clarify whether the function will be exercised.

Navy personnel will have 1,100 marines and more than 20 vessels

The three ports mentioned will have the support of 1,100 Marines (FN) in actions such as personnel searches and repression of crimes. There will be 750 marines in the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Itaguaí and 350 in Santos. Furthermore, the use of 120 vessels of various sizes and amphibious armor aims to increase inspection capacity at sea and in cargo terminals.

In an interview on Monday (6), the Navy explained that the operation will focus on reinforcing patrolling and naval inspection in maritime areas. The force’s operations are already carried out regularly in ports, but the decree issued by the federal government allows the Navy to have greater scope in operations in port regions, such as the use of troops. Previously, its functions were more administrative, although sporadic drug seizures were made.

On the other hand, the Navy patrol in Guanabara Bay will not reach the coast of Complexo da Maré, a community that was one of the main focuses of recent Rio police operations against Comando Vermelho leaders and is located on the edge of the bay. However, Vice Admiral Renato Rangel Ferreira guaranteed that any criminal movements will be detected.

“The area of ​​activity is the Organized Port Polygonal. What is this? It is an area delimited by ministerial decree that covers the pier, warehouses and some areas of the water surface. Within this polygonal, we will act to curb any illicit activity that happens. Any traffic that takes place in Guanabara Bay must pass through this area. There is no way to cross Guanabara Bay without passing through the polygon,” said the soldier.

He added explaining the decision to include the Port of Santos in the mission and not the Port of Paranaguá (PR), which has a long history of seizures.

“We have information that there is an interconnection between organized crime that operates in the Port of Santos and the Port of Rio de Janeiro, through which much of the maritime trade passes. That’s why they are connected in this operation. That’s what I can tell you. “

Security parliamentarians point out GLO failures

For federal deputy Delegado Palumbo (MDB-SP), the Law and Order Guarantee operation edited by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) does not combat the real problem of drug trafficking present in Brazil, as it does not act in the locations where drugs are distributed in the country, such as the favelas of large capitals.

“In my opinion, what was done by the federal government is a smokescreen”, he stated. According to Palumbo, it is necessary to pay attention to the cocaine that remains in Brazil and generates a lot of violence here.

“Brazil does not produce cocaine. Cocaine enters across borders, often via roads, not just through ports and airports. It is necessary to strengthen patrolling at borders and in hills, which are the focus of distribution. Where it is distributed, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, the government is not doing anything. So, there will be no point in placing the Armed Forces in ports and airports. It will continue to be the same thing”, said the parliamentarian.

He also stated that the government needs to strengthen the number of Federal Police.

“Of course, it is necessary to strengthen the Federal Police. Currently, it has a very low contingent. But I’ll say it again: there’s no point investing in this and letting the drugs continue to enter. What the Navy can do today is the same thing that the Federal Police does: inspect containers with sniffer dogs. But the focus of the drug is not just there,” she said.

In addition to operations at ports, the government stated that there will be inspections at airports and on the borders of Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. But the authorities did not make it clear whether the focus of the operation was to strangle the international drug route to attack the finances of factions involved in international trafficking or to also prevent the entry of cocaine for consumption in Brazil.

In the assessment of federal deputy Sergeant Gonçalves (PL-RN), the GLO decreed by the government will not be effective as it does not cover ports in other regions of the country, such as the Northeast.

“I understand that this inspection at Brazilian ports and airports must be a permanent action, and not just through a GLO. It is true that it is a legal and constitutional instrument, but we understand that it is a ‘fake GLO'”, he stated.

“In fact, it is to provide a response to this escalation of violence only in Rio de Janeiro, but in other states, as in the case of my own state, Rio Grande do Norte, we had a wave of violence with attacks very similar to those that occurred in Rio de Janeiro four, five months ago”, stated the deputy.

Organized crime also targets smaller ports

According to the global report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released in July 2022, smaller ports located in the North and Northeast of Brazil are taking on an increasingly important role as warehouses for the transatlantic cocaine trade.

The report does not indicate which ports these are specifically, but informs that traffickers are resorting to these alternatives due to increased inspection at the Port of Santos. The recent seizure of cocaine on a vessel off the coast of Pernambuco shows that crime already has a strong presence in the region.

In a joint action between the Navy and the Federal Police, on September 19, 3.6 tons of cocaine were seized, the largest seizure of the drug ever carried out in the Brazilian sea. The vessel was destined for the African continent.