The evolution of Brazil’s security landscape has been increasingly defined by the transition of domestic criminal factions into sophisticated transnational entities. While groups like the Red Command (CV) and the First Capital Command (PCC) have been fixture of the regional security dialogue for decades, the current era is marked by a new level of professionalization. This shift required a move away from isolated policing toward large-scale, intelligence-led strategic interventions.
“What began as a power struggle in prisons has turned into a complex multinational machine,” argue Paulo Bilynskyj, president of the Public Security and Organized Crime Commission of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, and Dr. Marcos Degaut, an expert in International Security, in an article for Gazeta do Povo.
According to their analysis, this transnationalization is driven by the consolidation of factions with unified command and entrepreneurial capacity, and Brazil’s active insertion into new global routes for narcotics and weapons.
The necessity of this proactive stance was underscored in late October 2025, when Brazilian security forces launched Operation Containment (Operação Contenção), one of the most significant tactical deployments in the nation’s history. Aimed at dismantling the command-and-control hubs of the CV in Rio de Janeiro, the operation involved some 2,500 elite personnel from the Civil and Military Police.
The primary objective was to halt the CV’s aggressive territorial expansion and execute arrest warrants against the faction’s leadership. Significantly, 30 of these targets were identified as high-level operatives from other Brazilian states, illustrating how Rio’s favelas have become a sanctuary for a national criminal network. During the incursion, security forces faced an entrenched insurgency that used incendiary barricades and weaponized drones to drop explosives. The eventual seizure of 93 rifles — including AK, AR, and FAL models — effectively disarmed a significant wing of the organization’s paramilitary structure.
While Operation Containment targeted the physical strongholds of crime, Operation Hidden Carbon (Operação Carbono Oculto), launched in August 2025, represents the vanguard of the “economic suffocation” strategy. In what authorities described as the largest offensive against organized crime’s financial infrastructure in Brazil, more than 1,400 agents targeted a massive money laundering web orchestrated by the PCC.
The operation exposed how the faction had transitioned from a drug trafficking structure to a corporate conglomerate model, infiltrating Brazil’s critical fuel sector. By controlling over 1,000 gas stations across 10 states, the PCC used a verticalized supply chain — including ethanol plants, a fleet of 1,600 trucks, and a port terminal — to launder billions in illicit proceeds.
Transnational nexus and global alliances
The expansion of these organizations is no longer a localized phenomenon but a key component of the global illicit economy. “Today, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela constitute a continuous and integrated criminal axis, from which illicit flows reach the South Atlantic, advance through West Africa, and end up in European hubs,” say Bilynskyj and Degaut.
This regional interconnectedness is now being met with an equally integrated defense. Central to this effort is the deepening partnership between Brazil and the United States. In April 2025, the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding. This agreement established a robust framework for the real-time exchange of criminal investigative intelligence, specifically targeting the firearms trafficking and illicit financial networks that sustain groups like the CV and PCC.
Brazil has also achieved a vanguard role in multilateral policing. Following the election of Valdecy Urquiza — the first Brazilian to serve as INTERPOL Secretary General — a new INTERPOL Task Force Against Organized Crime in Latin America was launched in June 2025. This task force, based in the region, focuses on disrupting the most dangerous transnational criminal organization (TCO) nodes. This was further bolstered by the March 2025 data-sharing treaty with Europol, making Brazil the first Latin American nation to achieve seamless operational data exchange with the European Union to monitor suspicious activities in Atlantic ports.
A professionalized frontline
The events in the Alemão and Penha favelas demonstrated the extreme conditions under which Brazilian security forces operate. The October offensive showcased a refined tactical proficiency designed to reclaim sovereign territory from heavily armed narcoterrorists. This proficiency is a result of years of specialized training and the adoption of modern technologies, such as advanced signal intelligence and armored mobility.
The successful execution of nearly 100 arrest warrants — targeting not just local operators but high-value leaders from multiple states — highlights the effectiveness of modern interagency coordination, experts contend. However, the loss of officers during the engagement serves as a somber reminder of the high stakes involved in reclaiming sovereign territory from entrenched criminal elements.
The strategy
There is a growing consensus that tactical success in Brazilian cities must be supported by a “closed box” strategy at the borders. “Regional cooperation is essential because organized crime already operates in an integrated manner, while states fight in isolation with incompatible legislation,” says Organized crime expert and Brazilian journalist André Caramante. He argues that structured cooperation creates a “closed box effect,” where shared intelligence prevents escapes and coordinated asset tracking “economically suffocates organizations.”
The recent activation of the Specialized Working Group on Asset Recovery (GTERA) within Mercosur represents a move to freeze criminal capital across borders. Furthermore, the renewal of the Tripartite Command with Argentina and Paraguay has institutionalized a permanent intelligence-sharing framework. This ensures that the professionalization of the police on the ground is matched by the agility of the state’s financial and investigative apparatus.
The current security posture in Brazil reflects a rational assessment of a long-standing threat. By treating the expansion of the CV and PCC as a geopolitical challenge rather than a simple domestic issue, Brazil is contributing to setting a standard for regional defense. The success of these efforts depends on the continued bravery of the security forces and the unwavering commitment to a unified, borderless response — one that bridges the streets of Rio with the operational centers of the region, the United States, and Europe.
