Criminal gangs are operating in over a third of municipalities in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest driving a boom in violence, according to a report published Wednesday by a prominent nonprofit organization.
In 2024, gangs were present in 260 of 772 municipalities in the region, up from 178 last year, according to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security. The entrenchment of “mafia-like” organizations — particularly the Red Command and First Capital Command (PCC) — “greatly aggravate the situation in the Legal Amazon, which is now seen as a very strategic territory for transnational trafficking, with the circulation of different illicit goods,” the report said.
