PCC: A Prison from Which There Is No Escape

It was a Tuesday night, January 14, 2020, after “free time” when prison authorities found his body.

PCC Investigation: Introduction and Major Findings

It was August 31, 1993, and the sun was shining when eight men entered a makeshift soccer pitch in the middle of the Taubaté prison.

Brazil’s Red Command Yet to Find Strong Foothold in Argentina

New details have emerged about the sophisticated criminal operations of a Red Command leader who once operated in the Argentina-Brazil border region. Such isolated incidents, however, are not an indication…

Cooking Cocaine in Full View of Guards at Paraguay's Largest Prison

A drug kitchen was openly run by inmates inside Paraguay’s biggest prison, Tacumbú, in one of the clearest representations to date about how corruption has taken over the country’s penitentiary…

Business As Usual? Cocaine Seizures On the Rise At Bolivia-Brazil Border

Authorities claim that rising cocaine seizures along the Bolivia-Brazil border have come as a direct result of stepped-up enforcement, but such interceptions suggest drug smuggling in the porous zone continues…

Brazil Goes After Gang Finances But With Little Guarantee of Success

Recent operations in Brazil against the country’s two leading gangs, the PCC and Red Command, show that authorities are varying up their tactics but may still struggle to have a…

'PCC and Brazil Government Engaged in Game of Chess,' says Expert

The PCC has become one of the most complex and important criminal organizations with Latin America, with over 30,000 members in Brazil, an active presence in Paraguay and drug trafficking…

Arrest of Top Trafficker Unlikely to Slow Growth of Brazil's PCC

A high-profile drug trafficker connected to Brazil’s PCC has been captured in Mozambique. The surprise ending to a 21-year manhunt raises interesting questions about whether the current leadership of the…

Gilberto Aparecido Dos Santos, alias 'Fuminho'

Gilberto Aparecido Dos Santos, alias “Fuminho,” is one of the leaders of Brazil’s largest criminal gang, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC).

PCC's Rapid Expansion Topic of Debate at InSight Crime Conference

Thanks to a combination of great organizational capacity, control of prisons, high levels of loyalty among its members and dominance of key criminal economies, the PCC has become one of…

São Paulo, Paraguay and Beyond: The PCC's Growing Power

Over the last few years, the PCC’s continued expansion into Paraguay has seen Brazil's most powerful criminal group leave behind its roots as a prison gang to become a transnational…

Deploying Soldiers and Tanks Hasn't Helped Paraguay's Prison Crisis

Following the dramatic prison break on January 19 by members of the PCC, Paraguay’s president has once again sent military troops to the country’s penitentiaries, despite the initial military deployment…