The First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital - PCC) was inspired by the Red Command (Comando Vermelho). Both criminal organizations were formed by prisoners as self-protection groups in Brazil’s brutal prison system. The PCC arose in Sao Paulo in the 1990s, and has fought a bloody ongoing feud with police in the city. The group, now the largest and best-organized criminal organization in Brazil, is believed to have members in two-thirds of the country's states, and controls drug trafficking routes between Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

Bolivia anti-narcotics police have dismantled an alleged international drug trafficking ring they say was headed by the Brazilian prison gang, the First Capital Command (PCC), an indication of the gang’s expanding reach west.

The governor of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina has called for reinforcements from the federal emergency police force FNS to deal with escalating violence linked to organized crime, just one week after rejecting the idea.

Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina has witnessed over 50 violent attacks during a six-day period, raising new concerns over whether prison gang the First Capital Command (PCC) is involved.

Bolivian authorities broke up a network suspected of smuggling guns from the United States to Brazil's First Capital Command (PCC) gang, highlighting this Andean nation's role as a transit route in the region's illicit arms trade.

Three alleged members of the Brazilian PCC prison gang have been arrested in the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, as foreign cartels increase their presence in this vulnerable drug-producing nation, despite continuing government denials.

The Brazilian military will now allow police and firefighters to buy powerful .45 caliber guns for personal use, raising fears over how the weapons will be used and where they might end up.

Sao Paulo authorities are now able to mandate the hospitalization of crack addicts, as part of the government's efforts to halt rising demand for the low-cost drug.

A 10-hour conference call that gang members hosted from inside a Sao Paulo jail highlights how gang leaders in Brazil are able to directly conduct their "business" from the safety of their prison cells.

Anti-narcotics police in Bolivia have revealed that Brazil's PCC prison gang controls cocaine trafficking routes throughout the country, and are now on the hunt for a man they claim is the PCC's chief contact in Bolivia.