The “patronage” of criminal organizations in Minas Gerais by factions from other States is gaining strength in Minas Gerais and is challenging the State’s Public Security Forces. The union between drug traffickers operating in cities in Minas Gerais and residents in other locations, such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, intensified after the pandemic, with the transfer of expertise between criminals and the arrival of heavy weapons in Minas Gerais.
The situation has been combatted through police operations and the arrest of several criminal leaders. One of them this Tuesday morning (April 23), in Juiz de Fora, in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais. Nine people linked to CV were arrested suspected crimes of torture and criminal formation. In the last eight days alone, four operations were carried out against groups formed by members of the Red Command (CV) and the First Capital Command (PCC) in the State.
Despite having intensified in recent months, sponsorship between more structured factions and smaller groups is not something new or restricted to the State, according to delegate Márcio Rocha Vianna Dias, coordinator of the task force to combat organized crime in Juiz de Fora and Zona da Mata, from the Department of Special Operations (Deoesp), from the Civil Police of Minas Gerais (PCMG). “It’s a problem that started since the division of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV). These two large organizations aligned themselves with these smaller ones to gain even more strength. It’s a movement that takes place in Minas and in other States”.
The advancement of the movement, according to Major Layla Brunnela, spokesperson for the Military Police of Minas Gerais (PMMG), has mobilized the corporation to contain the expansion attempt by these factions. “I hear the phrase a lot that ‘crime has no borders’, that ‘criminals have no borders to commit crimes’. And these criminals are seeing today that there is no frontier for the work of the Military Police. There is close monitoring, the exchange of information with the Civil Police of Minas Gerais and other bodies, but also with the military police of other states,” he said.
Recently, an unprecedented survey by the Ministry of Justice, published by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, showed that at least 13 factions operate in prisons in the State of Minas Gerais. In addition to CV and PCC, criminal groups such as Bonde dos 40, Cartel do Norte, Terceiro Comando da Capital (TCC), among others, are on the list.
For delegate Márcio Rocha Vianna Dias, the scenario became more challenging for public safety after the pandemic, due to a phenomenon known as “drug trafficker exchange”. According to him, crime leaders in MG gained “expertise”, that is, more competence, through interaction with other drug traffickers, mainly from Rio de Janeiro.
“When the STF published ADPF 635 (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental), which restricted police operations in Rio communities during the pandemic, crime leaders from across the country went to Rio de Janeiro in an attempt to hide. Now, they they are returning to their states of origin with all the expertise they acquired there”, he pointed out.
Still according to the delegate, combined with the experience gained with crime in Rio de Janeiro, these leaders brought heavy weapons to the State. “Along with this expertise, we have noticed greater weapons of arms. Everything that involves criminals in Rio de Janeiro comes in the bag because of this interconnection with organized crime,” he added.
The spokeswoman for the Minas Gerais police, Layla Brunnela, reveals, however, that criminals who seek this “exchange” in other States are monitored by the Security Forces. “Today we are one step ahead of the criminal. We carry out constant monitoring, intelligence does this well. And the operations prevent criminals from being released and from being able to complete any knowledge acquired”, she stressed.
The major guarantees that these factions have found it difficult to operate in Minas Gerais. “Obviously there will be a reaction, they will try to occupy, gain space, this is the role of the criminal. His role is not to care about society. They want to expand trafficking and expand homicides. But in Minas Gerais public security is always one step ahead. No I see the establishment of crime here at the level of other states, as we see”, he concluded.
Remember operations in MG
Two major operations against members of the PCC were carried out in Minas Gerais on April 17th and 18th. In the Triângulo Mineiro region, 116 preventive arrest warrants and 11 search and seizure warrants were served. Those investigated were charged with the crimes of criminal organization, association for the trafficking and illicit trafficking of narcotics and entry of cell phones into the Professor Jacy de Assis prison, in Uberlândia. The group, according to the investigation, had the objective of killing a criminal police officer from the unit.
In São Sebastião do Paraíso, in the south of Minas, 39 drug dealers were arrested for selling drugs inside and outside the city prison. According to the investigation, they were supported by partners and family members. A direct relationship with the PCC, the largest criminal faction in Brazil, was identified by the PMMG intelligence section. Crack, marijuana and cocaine were trafficked through the so-called “redneck trafficking route”, between São Paulo, headquarters of the PCC, and the southern region of Minas.
Operation against the Red Command (CV)
This Tuesday (April 23), nine people linked to the CV were arrested during an operation in Juiz de Fora, in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. They are suspected of keeping a young woman in prison and torturing three young people from the city. The crimes would have occurred due to a debt owed by the woman’s boyfriend to drug trafficking and the trio having “disobeyed” the traffickers’ orders. Police seized drugs, cell phones and money during the raid.
On April 15, an operation was carried out in Muriaé, in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. Inmates linked to various criminal groups were subject to inspection at the Doutor Manoel Martins Lisboa Júnior penitentiary. Various security procedures, manual inspections and general searches were carried out in all cells housing members of these factions. The operation took place after police officers found suspicious notes in one of the cells.
BH in the sights of criminal factions from other states
In January of this year, the Military Police of Minas Gerais began an operation to contain a criminal organization that attempted to establish itself in Cabana do Pai Tomás, in the western region of Belo Horizonte. Among the targets were members of the Tercero Comando Puro (TCP) faction, from Rio de Janeiro, a rival to Comando Vermelho (CV). The operation began after a bus was set on fire to protest the death of one of the drug dealers. which operated in the agglomeration of the capital of Minas Gerais. According to the police, the collective was burned on orders from Sala Vip, a criminal faction in Belo Horizonte, which works in conjunction with TCP.
Two weeks after the operation in Cabana do Pai Tomás, PMMG occupied the Novo Aarão Reis neighborhood, in the North region. The aim of the work was to curb drug trafficking and funk parties with “heavy” weapons. At the time, according to the police, it was not possible to confirm that members of criminal factions from other states were operating in the region. “We know that these organizations want to establish themselves in the state, but what we have given in response is the difficulty in establishing them in Minas,” said Major Layla Brunella, spokesperson for the corporation in the state, during the operation.
In March last year, the Civil Police of Minas Gerais (PCMG) carried out an operation that ended with the arrest of Marcos Vinícius dos Santos, aged 39, one of the drug traffickers most wanted by the police in Rio de Janeiro. Known as Chapola do Dendê, he was arrested boasting a life of luxury in the Belvedere neighborhood, in the Center-South region of BH. According to delegate João Prata, responsible for the operation, he stayed in the capital for two months.
At the time, the investigation identified that Belo Horizonte and cities in the metropolitan region were receiving large amounts of military material. According to Prata, they were weapons and ammunition used for bank robberies and arrived through drug trafficking. “We started investigating and found a kind of exchange between traffickers in Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro,” he said at the time.
Tags: Factions states sponsor trafficking challenge public safety
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