Drug gangs are active in one-quarter of Brazil’s Amazon

Drug trafficking is a growing scourge in the Brazilian Amazon. A November study by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, a think tank, points out that at least 22 criminal groups operate in the rainforest — present in roughly one-quarter of municipalities.

“Brazil risks losing sovereignty over the Amazon not to another country, but to organized crime,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso told reporters on the sidelines of this year’s edition of the World Economic Forum. The problem has reached such levels that, in 2015, police in the state of Pará apprehended a 17-meter submarine believed to have been used by gangs to transport drugs.

Data shows that, between 2019 and 2022, cocaine seizures made by federal and state police forces jumped by 277 percent to more than 81 tons. Cannabis seizures, meanwhile, were up by 123 percent to 61.3 tons.

And this is not just a security problem. Gang activity is boosting Amazon deforestation, as well. 

“There is growing evidence, for example, of drug traffickers financing and providing logistical support for illegal gold mining operations across the region,” the United Nations Office on Crime and Drugs wrote a year ago. 

The issue was tackled by a House public hearing on Wednesday. Lawmakers discussed the growing power of organized crime gangs in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, including the dispute between Brazil’s two major crime organizations for territorial control in the region.

Marcos Alan Ferreira, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba, described to lawmakers the...