Brazil: First Capital Command - PCC

From: Insight


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.

History

The PCC was formed in the wake of the October 1992 massacre in Carandiru prison, Sao Paulo, in which Brazilian security forces killed over 100 prisoners following a riot. In August the following year, a group of eight prisoners who had been transferred to Taubate prison, elsewhere in the state, formed the PCC to fight for justice for the massacre and push for better prison conditions. They used the Red Command’s slogan, “Peace, justice, freedom,” advocating for revolution and the destruction of the capitalist system, and expressing solidarity with the older group.

Members on the outside were required to pay some 500 reis a month, while those in prison paid some 25 reis -- funds used to pay lawyers, buy off prison guards and police, and to purchase drugs and weapons. In 1999 the group carried out the biggest bank heist in Sao Paulo’s history, stealing some $32 million.

PCC Factbox Founded 1993, in Taubate prison, Sao Paulo Membership 1,300 members, and an estimated 130,000 associates Leadership Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, alias “Marcola” Criminal Activities Drug trafficking, drug sales, bank robberies, extortion, kidnapping Brazil Factbox Homicide Rate Criminal Activities Drug transit, cocaine production, human trafficking, extortion, illegal gambling, kidnapping, prostitution rings Principal criminal groups Red Command (Comando Vermelho), First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital - PCC), Third Command (Terceiro Comando), Amigos dos Amigos, militia groups

The PCC’s existence was first publicly reported by journalist Fatima Souza in 1997, although the Sao Paulo government continued to deny that there was any such group.

The government moved to split up the PCC’s leaders, transferring them to prisons across the country in the following years. This, however, allowed them to make deeper links with the Red Command, in Rio prisons, and to spread their ideas more widely.

It had become impossible to deny the group’s existence by 2001, when it coordinated the biggest prison rebellion the world had ever seen, with simultaneous shutdowns in 29 facilities across Sao Paulo state.

In 2006 it launched an even bigger rebellion in protest after more members were transferred to remote facilities. Imprisoned members took over more than 70 prisons across the country, holding visitors hostage, and launched coordinated attacks on the outside, focused on Sao Paulo.

Assaults with guns and firebombs left more than 150 dead over the next few days, including many police and prison guards. The violence came to an end after the authorities allegedly made an informal truce with the PCC.

Leadership

The group’s leaders are said to have access to a telephone exchange that allows them to hold conference calls from within prison, in order to coordinate their activities. This is one of the key strengths of the group.

Jose Marcio Felicio, alias “Geleiao,” and Cesar Augusto Roriz da Silva, alias “Cesinha,” two founding members of the PCC, were expelled in 2002, and founded a rival organization, the Third Command (Terceiro Comando - TC). Marco Willians Camacho, alias “Marcola,” stepped up to lead the organization, with Julio Cesar Guedes de Moraes, alias “Julinho Carambola,” as his second-in-command.

Geography

The PCC is based in Sao Paulo state, but has branches across the country, particularly in Parana, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, with a lesser presence in Rio de Janeiro.

Allies and enemies

The PCC is allied with the Red Command, and enemies with Amigos dos Amigos, a Third Command spinoff called the Pure Third Command (Terceiro Comando Puro - TCP), and police militia groups.

Prospects

In 2012, the PCC showed that it was still able to pose a serious threat to security in Sao Paulo, with a new outbreak of revenge killings after police executed suspected gang members.