Brazilian Organized Crime Groups Drive Australia’s Cocaine Trade

[By Rodrigo Duton]

Australia faces an emerging national security threat from Brazilian crime groups. Once only a domestic concern in Brazil, organized crime there has evolved into a powerful narco-insurgency with transnational reach, making the country the world’s second-largest player in the cocaine trade after Colombia.

Until now, growth in Brazilian organized crime posed no threat to Australia. However, as detailed in ASPI’s newly released report, “The Pacific Cocaine Corridor: A Brazilian cartel’s pipeline to Australia,” Brazil’s growing role in global cocaine supply and its expansion into new markets (including new Pacific routes), the rising sophistication of its criminal networks, and growing demand in Australia’s lucrative cocaine market are increasing the presence of Brazilian crime groups on our shores.

Brazil’s two major drug syndicates are the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho. The PCC has become a particularly serious transnational criminal threat, exploiting weaknesses in political, legal and economic systems.

Brazil’s long coastline, abundant port facilities, unguarded inland water…