Recent police operations against organized crime structures in the country have raised debate about combating these criminal organizations. 
Subject scholar, jurist Walfrido Warde argues that integration between security forces and the creation of a national anti-mafia authority are strategies that must be adopted in the fight against Brazilian mafias.
“If we articulate everything, if we carry out a harmonious fight under a single coordination, this would avoid the lack of coordination, disarticulation and politicization of the process of combating mafias in Brazil”, said the jurist, in an interview with Brazil Agency.
Last week, jurist and prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya launched, in the capital of São Paulo, the book Public Security: Brazil Free from Mafiaswhich analyzes the advance of mafia organized crime in the country’s social, political and economic structures.
In the work, the two explain how the largest criminal organizations in the country, the PCC and Comando Vermelho, are infiltrated in the political sectors, economic activities and the social environment.
In the economic sector, Warde mentions that criminals are present in activities such as transportation, lighting, real estate, restaurant chains, car dealerships and fuel. He also mentions that they already have contracts with the public administration and even in the financial market, through funds, investments in society and cryptocurrencies.
In the political area, infiltration occurs through the financing of electoral campaigns.
“There are already ongoing investigations, journalistic articles in this regard, of the rampant criminal financing of electoral campaigns in Brazil. With the end of corporate financing, leaving only public electoral and party financing, mafia-type criminal organizations saw an opportunity. All of them provided with a lot of cash, cash money, saw an opportunity to finance electoral campaigns in councils, for state and federal deputies, and other elected positions”, says the lawyer, who is also president of the Institute for the Reform of Relations between State and Business.
For Warde, the lack of coordination between federal, state and municipal security forces, “due to the distribution of constitutional powers”, compromises actions to contain this process.
“The federal government only has the Federal Police, which has a staff of no more than 15 thousand men and women. And when combined with the Federal Highway Police, that is no more than 20 thousand men and women. While the staff of states and municipalities exceeds this by many dozens of times, and the same goes for budgets. If we articulate everything, if we carry out a harmonious fight under a single coordination, this would avoid lack of coordination, disarticulation and politicization of the process of combating mafias in Brazil”, he states.
The jurist states that the Proposed Amendment to the Public Security Constitution should propose the creation of a national anti-mafia authority, which, together with the Federal Police, would define policies to combat mafias, in coordination with the state, municipal and civil police and military. municipalities.
“This authority was not created in the PEC and was also not created in the anti-faction bill, which was presented by the government to Congress and, later, mutilated by substitutes presented and approved by the Chamber of Deputies.”
Types of criminals
According to Walfrido Warde, it is “absolutely essential” to typify the degree of participation and commitment of criminals within the mafia organization.
“It’s not enough to say: so and so is linked to the PCC. You need to say to what degree”, he highlights.
In the book, Warde and the prosecutor propose degrees of association for individuals and legal entities, which take into account whether individuals and associations are convicted (definitely or not), investigated, indicted or reported. With this, the State, according to the jurist, will be able to draw up a list of people involved in the mafias in a different way.
“Rules are also necessary so that public administration entities avoid hiring individuals or legal entities involved with mafia-type organized crime, something that has been happening in Brazil. We also suggest the reinstitution of corporate campaign financing, so that companies, now, under new rules of traceability, transparency and governance, can replace organized crime in financing”, he says.
In the jurist’s assessment, infiltrations by organized crime point to “a very advanced stage” towards a narcostate, which needs to be combated.
