HomeNewsBriefBrazil Fighting Pesticide Smuggling War on Two Fronts
BRIEF

Brazil Fighting Pesticide Smuggling War on Two Fronts

BRAZIL / 6 JAN 2020 BY MÓNICA BETANCUR EN

A growing black market for pesticides has left Brazil in a bind, fighting large robberies at home while also cracking down on smuggled agricultural products from Paraguay.

In December, 22 tons of stolen pesticides were seized in two separate operations by the military police in the central states of Goiás and Tocantins, Globo reported. The pesticides were worth an estimated $1.5 million.

While no arrests were made, reports show that Brazil’s largest gangs, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) and Red Command (Comando Vermelho – CV), have entered the trade.

SEE ALSO: PCC News and Profile

In November, the BBC reported that armed gang members raided farms for their pesticides. The gangs are even suspected of using drones to locate the agricultural products.

Pesticides are also increasingly smuggled from neighboring Paraguay, where regulations on these products are significantly laxer. Four tons of pesticides were seized in October in Mato Grosso do Sul after crossing the border, Globo reported.

A June 2019 report by Brazil’s Institute for the Economic and Social Development of Borders (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social de Fronterias - IDESF) estimated that 20 percent of pesticides sold in Brazil were illegally sourced, at an annual cost of 8.8 billion reais (around $2.1 billion).

“The smuggling of pesticides is growing in the country at the rate that Brazilian agriculture grows ... This smuggling has become a major concern as it is no longer a small market, but a large economy controlled by specialized gangs,” IDESF director, Luciano Stremel Barros, told the Brazilian Senate in September.

InSight Crime Analysis

The full scale of stolen pesticides in Brazil and those behind its theft remain largely unknown.

While there is no definite evidence of how deeply the PCC and Red Command are involved in this criminal economy, there have been various reports of thefts in Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, both PCC strongholds.

Federal police sources in the region confirmed to InSight Crime that the PCC and Red Command are seeking to enter this lucrative trade but that gangs dedicated to pesticide smuggling continue to control the market.

SEE ALSO: Corrupt Paraguay Officials Allow Thriving Contraband Market Into Brazil

According to Wagner Ferreira da Silva, a highway police colonel in Mato Grosso do Sul, pesticides are the fastest growing contraband at the border with Paraguay. He also told InSight Crime that pesticides are behind only drugs and cigarettes in terms of profits.

Brazil now faces a war on two fronts, cracking down on pesticide thefts at home and on smuggling from abroad. Both will prove difficult. The thefts are often happening in remote countryside areas where the response time of authorities is slow. Meanwhile, smuggling from Paraguay is aided by everything from corrupt officials to myriad crossing points between the two countries.

Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture having frequently signed off on the use of dozens of pesticides and chemical products in Brazil in 2019 is only likely to compound the problem.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 8 NOV 2022

As gold prices have skyrocketed, a boom in mining across the Amazon Basin has flourished, leaving a deep environmental footprint.

BRAZIL / 26 APR 2022

A protagonist in one of Brazil’s most infamous corruption scandals is behind bars again, accused of participating in an international…

BELIZE / 9 NOV 2021

While contraband cigarettes are a mainstay across Latin America, Belize has confirmed its status as a major port of entry…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…