Organized crime puts the triple border under control

According to the calculations of the Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics (ETCO), the revenues of the tribal border narcotics organizations, where 70% of the activities are managed in cash and do not pay any tax, would be d & # 39; 39, about 43,000 million dollars a year. It should be kept in mind that this is a strategic transit point for drugs, especially marijuana produced in Paraguay and cocaine produced in Bolivia and Peru, which are destined to the Brazilian territory. This criminal logistics ends with the sending of drugs in the port of Santos, one of the most active in Latin America, to which the actions of the Brazilian criminal mafias relate, among which stands the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). who gets a good deal of his income from this activity.

Brazil's intelligence services estimate the company's total turnover at around R $ 400 million a year, which equates to more than $ 100 million, for which it uses a sophisticated system of "money laundering". ;money". This was denounced by Attorney General Lincoln Gakiya, a member of the Public Prosecutions Task Force (Gaeco) of the San Pablo Public Prosecutor's Office, who did not hesitate to define the CCP as "the largest criminal organization in the world." South America in digital terms and financial movement ".

The tentacles of this Brazilian narco-criminal organization are also shaking neighboring Paraguay. "The presence of the CCP in departments like Canindeyu and Amambay is essential to explain the violence recorded in northeastern Paraguay, and the CCP's performance in the region is sending Pedro Juan Caballero's funds to different banks. located in the Brazilian territory. " , warn researchers Juan Delís Delgadillo, Sarah Cerna Villagra and Carlos Peris Castiglioni in their study entitled "What explains the murderous violence in Paraguay?", published by Perfiles Latinoamericanos magazine, Flacso Mexico.

Beyond drugs, one of the most lucrative activities is cigarette smuggling, considered "the visible part of a much larger criminal iceberg below the waterline and which has serious repercussions on political governance, citizen security and economic development in the region ", as Vanesa Nuemann and Stuart Page explain in their report" The numerous criminal leaders of the Golden Hydra ", published by Asymmetrica and the project to fight against extremism. "This has a very simple explanation: the asymmetry of values ​​between the legal product that circulates in the Argentine Republic and in the Federative Republic of Brazil and the one that it has in the Republic of Paraguay," he said. DEF Federal Judge Eldorado (Misiones), Miguel Ángel Guerrero, who participated a few weeks ago in the launch of the Hemispheric Security Network (HSN).

In Paraguay, however, the biggest headache comes from the so-called Paraguayan People's Army (PPE), an organization born in 2008 but whose origins date back to the beginning of the last decade when, under the guise of the Partido Patria Libre (PPL) at the time, dealt a blow to the abduction of the wife of businessman Antonio Debernardi, released after the payment of the ransom. This first action, perpetrated in 2002, would continue the kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former president Raúl Cubas Grau, in 2004. At present, as the explained the state Attorney General, Sandra Quiñónez, "the group is pursuing extortion kidnappings, but not always the citizens who are the subject of these kidnappings report or want to let them know by fear of reprisals. "

There are also strong suspicions about the existence of links between the EPP and the Brazilian CCP. Asked about the CCP's actions on the Paraguayan territory, Attorney General Quiñónez explained: "The members of the group enter the Paraguayan territory, commit punishable acts and then return to Brazil.We have had a lot of cooperation from Brazil and we were able to capture several of them, once in detention, deported or extradited. "The most controversial action of recent years was the command of April 24, 2017 against the logistics base of Prosegur Company. , located in Ciudad del Este, an operation named in Paraguay as "the flight of the century". In the cinematographic operation, more than 50 people armed with rifles, dynamite, laser sights and night vision equipment acted, which put the forces of
Security

Narco-crime, which also feeds on arms trafficking, is becoming the biggest headache for the governments of the Southern Cone, whose territories are running the risk of becoming fertile ground for transnational mafia. .