Brazil presents alliance plan against organized crime in Southern Cone

Justice and Public Security Minister Anderson Torres on Tuesday (April 12) presented to Paraguayan authorities a plan to intensify the fight against organized crime in South America.

“The Strategic Alliance against Transnational Organized Crime is an initiative carefully designed by the Brazilian government that will integrate the talents of the security areas of the Southern Cone countries in order to intensify and accelerate the hard blows that we have been striking against organized crime regionally,” said minister Torres in Asunción, capital of Paraguay - the first country invited to join this union of forces.

According to Torres, Brazil already has several operations with other countries against organized crime, but never in an expanded group with permanent members. “The idea is to strengthen and speed up this work, using the best of each South American country in terms of security, establishing common work standards that become familiar to all,” he added.

The invitation and the announcement of the alliance in Paraguay is a deference to the country, as it is the nation that most acts together with Brazil, “striking hard and continuous blows that are dismantling organized crime,” Anderson Torres noted.

Background

Ministry data show between 2019 and 2021 the Brazilian-Paraguayan New Alliance operation have destroyed 11,620 tons of marijuana jointly in both territories. Last year alone, 5,401 tons of the drug were eradicated. Both nations in 2020, through the so-called Operation Status, seized BRL 230 million ($ 48 million dollars) in goods from traffickers operating near the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, in Paraguay.

And through the so-called Safe Border Operations I, II and III, binational police officers have arrested leaders of the criminal faction First Capital Command (PCC) who worked between Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Porã, in Brazil.