Good morning! The Brazil-based PCC crime gang grabs the attention of the U.S. Treasury. Uber set to lose labor trial, and other delivery apps are worried. Rumored as Lula’s running mate, Geraldo Alckmin leaves his party. Presidential candidate targeted by corruption allegations, and says he is being persecuted.
U.S. Treasury targets Brazil’s biggest crime gang
U.S. President Joe Biden signed two new executive orders establishing instruments to fight drug trafficking gangs and criminal networks, as a way of showing that his administration is taking action on the country’s worsening opioid crisis. The U.S. Department of Treasury then said it had imposed sanctions on 25 entities and individuals — including the PCC, or the First Command of the Capital.
Why it matters. The U.S. government describes the PCC as “the most powerful organized crime group in Brazil and among the most powerful in the world.”
What is the PCC? The crime syndicate was born in August 1993 as a response to a prison massacre staged by the police in 1992, when 111 inmates in a São Paulo penitentiary were slaughtered over the span of half an hour following a riot. It began as an eight-member “union” of prisoners willing to...