Peruvian Cocaine Route Attracts Criminal Gangs to the Amazon

01/12/2017 - 12h30

The actions of criminal gangs in the Amazon is connected to the control of the supply of Peruvian cocaine to the North, Northeast and Mid-West regions of Brazil – a business that yields an estimated profit of US$ 4.5 billion every year.

This information is found in a report by the intelligence department of the Public Security Office of the state of Amazonas based on data supplied by the offices of other Brazilian states and gathered by the Federal Police in recent years on the Brazilian borders with Peru and Colombia.

The document was a response to the dispute between the criminal organizations Família do Norte (FDN), an ally of Comando Vermelho (CV), and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). The confrontation has killed at least 64 people in prisons in Manaus since the beginning of the year - many of them were decapitated.

To produce the report, Amazonas sent a standard questionnaire to the states in the three regions supplied through the Amazon routes. Of the ten states that answered the questionnaire, seven house PCC activities, six detected CV centers and two registered activities of Família do Norte.

Also, there are local criminal organizations operating in several states. Two states, Goiás and Rio Grande do Norte, said there are no criminal gang activities in their territories.

The state of Amazonas, with its 3,209 kilometers bordering Peru and Colombia, has three gangs in activity. The FDN was created in Manaus and is the number one operator of drugs and resources in the region.

On the other hand, the PCC controls mainly the route that uses the Paraguayan territory to supply the central and southern regions with cocaine from Peru and Bolivia.

The report shows that, in both cases, the main destination is the Brazilian market.

A study by the United Nations published in 2015 shows that Brazil is the number two in the ranking of top cocaine consumers in the words, behind the U.S.

"The results obtained indicate that Amazonas is the main route through which cocaine enters Brazil, coming from the coca plantations on the borders between Brazil and Peru as well as Brazil and Colombia," says the report.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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