EXCLUSIVE: Criminal faction PCC recruits Venezuelans to expand 'army' in Roraima and abroad
By @tupireport
The Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), one of the largest criminal organizations in Latin America, has recruited the labor of people of Venezuelan origin to work in drug trafficking in Roraima and increase the number of baptized members in Venezuela. Authorities affirm that the state has a strategic importance because it borders Venezuela and is close to Colombia.
The recruitment of Venezuelans to join the PCC occurs inside and outside the prisons of Roraima. The prosecutor of Gaeco (Special Group of Action to Combat Organized Crime) of the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office, Lincoln Gakiya, says that the baptism of Venezuelans causes the faction to expand its presence also in Venezuela.
The drugs that the PCC exports to Europe come from Colombia and Peru. "The look at Roraima is because of the proximity of the border with Colombia without taking the Amazonas, whose presence is greater of the FDN (Família do Norte) and CV (Comando Vermelho)," says the prosecutor.
It is inside the prisons that part of the baptisms take place, the faction's rituals to make the bond official and make the members "brothers". "As these people go to prison, they create relationships and are baptized," says sociologist Rodrigo Chagas, a researcher at the Society and Frontiers Graduate Program at UFRR and the Brazilian Public Safety Forum.
But today, the formalization of faction ties also occurs on the streets. Criminal Justice Attorney Márcio Sérgio Christino says that, in most cases, Venezuelans arrive in prison already involved with the PCC.
"The relationship [with Venezuelans] is much more because of trafficking. Most of them are linked to the PCC before they get to prison. The formalization of the link occurs in the prison system because there is the physical dominance of the faction there." — Márcio Sérgio Christino, Criminal Prosecutor
Roraima, a strategic state
The geographical location of Roraima is one of the factors that places the state as one of the most important for organized crime. Data from the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office, from November 2021, show that Roraima is the 6th state with the largest presence of the faction, with 1,601 baptized members.
Venezuelan labor for drug trafficking is cheaper than national labor, according to prosecutor Christino. "Therefore, the PCC creates a relationship of opportunity with the region."
There is interest of the PCC to maintain and expand its presence in Roraima, more than in other states of the northern region. According to Gakiya, Roraima is an "interesting" route for international cocaine trafficking.
Despite the hegemony of the PCC in the state, there are records of Venezuelan groups also present in the territory. Chagas, who researches narcogarimpo in the region, says there are indicators of the presence of members of the Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua in Roraima, but there is no power struggle.
"Crime strengthens crime." The motto of the PCC, Gakiya recalls, indicates that the PCC only "enters on a collision course" if some leader declares war against the São Paulo faction. According to Christino, local organizations end up being suppressed by the actions of the PCC.
Other organizations expand until it is convenient for the PCC, according to the prosecutor. "The PCC does not allow them to grow beyond what is convenient for them," Christino says. One way to control the influence of other groups is to leak information to the police.
Baptized Venezuelans
In August 2020, the Public Ministry of Roraima denounced 19 people of Venezuelan origin baptized by the PCC. The baptism sheets were obtained from notes found in the PAMC (Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo).
The operation was the first to link the PCC to Venezuelans in the state, according to prosecutor Carlos Alberto Melotto. "This denunciation was the initial milestone. A seizure of baptism cards was made, with information about who the godfathers were, when they were baptized, and if they went through the Venezuelan prison system," he says.
Among the accused, five were arrested for drug trafficking in points dominated by the PCC. According to the document, at least 13 were serving time in Venezuela, five were arrested for murder and robbery, and the others, accused of theft, drug trafficking and theft.
The investigation and the denunciation gathered notes with the baptismal data of the accused with name, alias, reference (person responsible for the baptism), date of baptism, and place of origin (country, state, and municipality).
One of the accused, the "brother" nicknamed Cabello, was the one who appeared to have a higher ranking than the rest of the group, according to Melotto. He would check statements, give payment orders for the purchase of drugs and weapons, and buy support house, and pay relatives of prisoners.
In a statement to the police, Cabello said that there were 740 Venezuelans belonging to the PCC in Roraima and that the organization made an alliance with the Venezuelan faction Tren de Aragua. He reported that he held the position of Summary of State and Country FMs.
[The PCC] keeps baptizing Venezuelans. It's interesting for them because they get Venezuelans acting inside Venezuela already baptized with the PCC's flag. Then, the PCC gains another country. — Lincoln Gakiya, São Paulo State Prosecutor
PCC in the prison system
Venezuelan migration to Roraima, intensified in 2015, has also impacted prison statistics, according to Chagas, of UFRR and FBSP.
The main prison in the state, today the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo, has 1,731 people deprived of liberty. Of those, 304 are Venezuelan. In December 2019, there were 265, according to data obtained by UOL from the State Secretariat of Justice and Citizenship.
Chagas points out that, upon entering the PAMC, the chances of these prisoners having contact with the São Paulo-based faction increase - even though not all Venezuelan deprived immigrants have links to the PCC.
By 2023, the statewide prison population is 4,666 people. The number is almost triple the 1,604 inmates recorded in 2014.
The government of Roraima reported that the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo underwent federal intervention at the end of 2019. "Since then, security procedures have been implemented for all actions inside the prison, from a simple cell opening for routine care to procedures for more complex situations."
According to the government, the "prison unit is controlled because of these security procedures, which are strictly monitored by the security chiefs, making the environment safer both for the inmates and for the criminal police officers and other servers who work there."
PCC on the streets
Unlike the CV, which has autonomy to act in the states, the PCC "mirrors" in all regions where it acts the way of administration established in São Paulo. "In Roraima, the general attunement owes satisfaction to those in São Paulo. In terms of statute, salves, everything has to follow all the guidelines of the PCC–São Paulo," says Gakiya.
However, members can engage in isolated criminal activities. "They have autonomy to do whatever they want within the state. The criminal will look for opportunities linked to profit and a low risk of punishment. No 'salve' has ever been issued about engaging in illegal mining. That goes into the criminal's pocket."
Detailing venezuelan baptism
The note, handwritten in blue pen on a torn textbook page, states that Argenis Rafael Barrios Lopez, 30, has two colleges: Puente Ayala and PAMC. This Venezuelan, however, does not have a college degree. At least not in formal educational institutions. Puente Ayala is the nickname of the José Antonio Anzoátegui prison in the city of Barcelona, in his native country, one of the most violent in Venezuela.
And PAMC is the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo, near Boa Vista, which in recent years was the scene of two major massacres that shocked Brazil. In these two prisons Lopez got his degrees in crime, attracting the eyes of the largest faction in South America, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). He is one of 19 Venezuelans indicted by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Roraima in late 2020 on charges of belonging to the group that emerged in São Paulo in the nineties. Most of them are still at large.
But the fact that caught the attention of the authorities was that all of them are baptized members of the PCC, that is, they are brothers and not just collaborators. Hermanos venezuelanos with a prominent position in the faction and a strong godfather.
The note with Lopez's PCC license plate was seized during an operation carried out in the PAMC by the federal intervention forces that have been active in the state since 2018, aiming to take control of the prisons from the hands of the faction after the scenes of barbarity that occurred in the unit in 2016 and 2017, with a balance of more than 40 deaths.
The cooperation of foreigners with the group is nothing new -some Paraguayans and even Italians, for example, have connections with the PCC. But the baptism of the Venezuelans shows closer ties between organized crime in the two countries. The testimony of Cristian Alexis Graterol Cabello, another Venezuelan accused, reinforces this thesis. According to him, at least 740 of his compatriots have joined the ranks of the faction in Roraima in recent years.
In addition, the PCC has formed an alliance with the criminal group Trem de Arágua, one of the largest in Venezuela, which is dedicated to "extortion, kidnapping, homicide, vehicle theft, and drug and weapons trafficking," according to the international research group InSight Crime.
The country ruled by Nicolás Maduro, despite not being a major drug producer, is considered free territory for trafficking, even with suspected military participation in the shady business.
The baptized Venezuelans do not only occupy subordinate positions within the PCC's organizational chart in Roraima. Cabello is an example of the trust placed in them by Brazilian criminals. He succeeded Michel Mota Magalhães in controlling the drug sales points in the residential complex Vila Jardim, in Boa Vista, the main one in the capital.
Documents seized by the federal intervention in the PAMC also point out that the accused was part of the State and Country FM Tuning, a department of the PCC responsible for coordinating retail drug sales, a very important position within the hierarchy of the group.
According to the MP, it was his job to "manage, check the statements, give payment orders for the purchase of drugs and weapons, purchase of a support house, payment to relatives of prisoners who were in federal penitentiaries, withdrawal of money from Brazil to Paraguay, conversion of money into dollars in Paraguay, Panama, Mexico, and Spain. In other words, Cabello was in a position of prominence and international performance for the faction.
In addition to him, three other Venezuelans accused occupied strategic positions for the criminal organization: Carlos Geraldo Gonsales Garcia, in the Tuning Disciplinary Summary; Michel Joseph Touron in the "contention of the tabacaria" (service of the financial sector of the faction); and Luis Adrian Mora Quijada in the Tribunal do Crime of the faction in Roraima, the latter being responsible for judging and applying sentences on behalf of the PCC. According to the MP, the Venezuelans "entered Brazil through the Santa Elena de Uairen/Pacaraima border and most of them are from Venezuelan penitentiaries controlled by criminal factions, and are therefore suspected of being members of foreign criminal groups with which the Brazilian faction already had contact."
Heavyweight Godfather in the PCC
The prestige of the PCC's hermanos is so great that some of them had Ozélio de Oliveira as a baptism godfather in the faction - every new brother needs to be nominated by an old member, who is responsible for the newcomer's conduct. Oliveira was one of the main names of the criminal group in Roraima and Brazil, having been responsible, in 1998, for the kidnapping of Wellington Camargo, brother of the Brazilian duo Zezé Di Camargo and Luciano. Oliveira created the roraimense cell of the PCC while he was detained in Piraquara, in the interior of Paraná. He would have been responsible for the order that led to the massacres of rival inmates that occurred in PAMC in 2016 and 2017.
The presence of Oziel in the venezuelan connection of the PCC is highlighted in the complaint: "The participation of a member of the national summit of the PCC in the baptism of Venezuelans shows that the criminal faction attaches strategic importance to the entry of these criminals, many of whom come from foreign factions operating in the neighboring country," says the MP. Oliveira was killed by police in January 2021 in São José dos Pinhais, near Curitiba. According to authorities, he was planning the kidnapping of a local businessman.
"We know that Venezuela is a highly corrupt country with a virtually open dry border"
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