Brazil’s National Anti-Drug Fund (FNA, in Portuguese) collected almost $26.5 million by the end of 2020. In comparison, the FNA collected more than $17 million in 2019.
This was the fifth increase in revenue since 2016, when the fund registered almost $6 million. The FNA’s revenue is a combination of taxes, the sale of assets seized from drug dealers, money seized during operations against organized crime, in addition to fines.
According to the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD, in Portuguese), the average revenue jumped from nearly $7 million per year to more than $17 million in 2019, and nearly $26.5 million in 2020.
“This was made possible following the approval of Law 13886 of 2019 and the restructuring of SENAD’s work processes. We hired auctioneers across the country to sell assets seized from organized crime,” said Luiz Roberto Beggiora, SENAD’s secretary.
In 2020, 124 auctions were held, where, in addition to assets, some $11 million was collected in seized foreign currency. Some of the auctioned items included 15 diamonds, 4.5 kilograms of gold, 1,296 cattle, 29 tons of animal feed used to conceal drugs, more than 2,500 vehicles, and seven airplanes.
Cooperation agreements with the National Logistics Agency and the Federal Administrative Council to manage companies seized from criminal organizations and to sell biological assets, such as seeds, animal feed, and animals, were key to reaching the amount collected.
According to Beggiora, “the proceeds collected from auctioning the assets seized from criminals enabled several investments in public security and anti-drug projects.”