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Mon, Jan 20, 2020

Red Command News

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Capture of Levi Felicio on the Brazil-Paraguay Border Raises Uncertainties

The recent arrest of a purported Brazilian criminal gang boss, as well as a number of collaborators, including police, along the Brazil-Paraguay border has revealed a complicated problem: nobody knows who is working for...

Analysis

Police Links to Drug Trafficking Endemic in Paraguay

Nearly two dozen police officers in Paraguay are accused of protecting a transnational drug smuggling ring led by a Brazilian trafficker, providing renewed evidence of the...

Brief

Northern Brazil Prison Massacre Suggests Shifting Criminal Dynamics

A gruesome prison massacre in northern Brazil has raised serious questions about potential shifts in criminal alliances in a highly strategic region of this South American...

Analysis

Illegal Cigarettes Increasing Presence in Brazil and Southern Cone

Argentina, Chile and Brazil are struggling with increased demand for smuggled cigarettes, as these provide major revenue for criminal groups and result in massive tax losses for...

Brief

Red Command Profile

Graffiti bearing the Red Command's initials

Red Command

The Red Command (Comando Vermelho) is Brazil’s oldest criminal group, created in a Rio de Janeiro prison in the 1970s as a self-protection group for prisoners. It started out with low-level crimes like muggings and bank robberies, but in the 1980s the group moved into the cocaine trade, working with Colombian drug cartels and taking on a social leadership role in many of Rio’s marginalized...
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