Rio to set up working group to target criminal rings’ cash flow
The creation of a working group that will focus on investigating the financial operations of criminal organizations active in Rio de Janeiro was approved by state and federal government authorities on Tuesday (Oct. 29).
The move was decided upon during a meeting to deal with the episodes of violence that took place last week, when three innocent people were killed during a clash between police and criminal organizations on Brasil avenue, northern Rio. The group should begin its activities in the next few days.
“The main focus here is territory and a probe targeting the financial workings of criminal organizations—which we think will have a positive result later on. If we deprive these organizations of their financial capacity, we deprive them of their ability to seize territory and buy weapons,” said Victor dos Santos, public security secretary for Rio de Janeiro state.
National Secretary for Public Security Mário Luiz Sarrubbo highlighted the integration between the state and the federal government. “The idea is to outline a work plan that can change part of the reality we have, looking at the territories and thinking about retaking territory,” he declared.
Last week’s clashes were the result of a police operation in Complexo de Israel, a group of favelas located along Brasil avenue, dominated by criminal organizations. Secretary Victor dos Santos said the focus was on removing barricades and accessing a telephone tower to re-establish the signal blocked by the criminal rings, which left around 130 thousand people without access to cell phone services.
According to the Military Police, the resistance of criminal organizations in the region was unusual. The shootout caused an interruption in traffic on Brasil avenue as well as in the circulation of trains and buses in the region. Local schools and health care station were also closed.
Integration and intelligence
This is not the first time episodes of violence in Rio de Janeiro have led state and federal government officials to come together to devise joint measures. Sarrubbo, however, believes that this time the mobilization has fresh components.
“We want to know where this money is going, where it’s coming from. What is the economic cycle that dominates a given territory? How do so many rifles get to Rio de Janeiro? We’re now thinking much more about building an intelligence network that can understand the economics of crime in certain territories. Next, we should be able to replace that cash flow with the state’s economy, the legal economy, which generates income and taxes for the state,” he added.
Rio’s secretary noted that 47 percent of all the rifles seized this year in the state’s municipalities were made in the US. He assured there is intelligence on the route these weapons have taken to arrive in Brazil. Even so, difficulties remain in tackling the problem.
“The challenge is not small. We have over 17 thousand kilometers of land border, plus more than 7,500km of sea border. Brazil is a country of continental dimensions. We see other countries with much greater resources than Brazil and they can’t even close a border because of immigration. So the difficulty is great,” he argued.
