https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...n-brasile-un-business-che-vale-miliardi/the alarm
Drug trafficking, the 'Ndrangheta increasingly protagonist in Brazil: a business worth billions
Lula's policies, so far, have not worked and the risk is that the country will turn into a "narco-state". And the 'ndrine do golden business with the white powder
Published: 26/08/2024 – 18:39
LAMEZIA TERME «The port of Santos , in the state of San Paolo, continues to be an important hub for cocaine trafficking towards Europe, thanks also to the increasingly strong presence of the 'ndrangheta». This is the analysis of Maria Zuppello, a journalist and essayist expert in terrorism and international crime. In an interview with “La Verità” , Zuppello analyzed the criminal situation that particularly concerns Brazil. Here, in fact, President Lula had promised before the elections that he would defeat drug traffickers, but the situation seems to have further worsened. This is reported by the data of the annual public security report according to which from 2013 to 2023 cocaine seizures in the country increased by 73%, in total in this decade 730 tons were seized: in 2019 alone 104.6 tons were confiscated. «Brazil – Zuppello pointed out – continues to be the second largest cocaine consumption market in the world, second only to the United States».
The role of the 'ndrangheta
And it is in this worrying scenario that the 'ndrangheta would play a fundamental role. The port of Santos, in the state of São Paulo, continues to be an important hub for cocaine trafficking towards Europe, thanks also to the increasingly strong presence of Calabrian organised crime. A few weeks ago, a load of 500 kilos of cocaine was discovered in a sugar shipment in a container terminal in Cubatão, not far from the port of Santos, with the risk – concrete – that Brazil will soon turn into a real «narco-state» . With a recent ordinance, all containers headed towards Lebanon, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Georgia, Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia will have to be checked with a special scanner. «The cocaine business in Brazil – Zuppello underlines to La Verità – is worth billions of dollars, so much so that now the main criminal group in the country, the First Command of the Capital (PCC), is laundering its gigantic proceeds also in soccer teams, in agencies that manage the careers of players and even in the candidacies of politicians for the upcoming administrative elections of October 6».
Pasquino Vincenzo 'ndrangheta
Business in Brazil, Pasquino's statements
That Brazil is one of the destinations marked on the maps of drug traffickers doing business with the 'ndrangheta is nothing new. The most consistent elements to support this theory emerge in particular from recent news stories related to the statements of Vincenzo Pasquino, born in 1990 and raised in Turin but considered a leading member of the Calabrian 'ndrangheta and fully included at the top of the 'ndrangheta local of Volpiano, in Piedmont, and a new collaborator of justice. His stories to the anti-mafia magistrates are full of details of a transnational organization dedicated to money laundering, drug trafficking and weapons throughout the world and on which the DDA of Reggio Calabria, Milan and Genoa worked, together with investigators from Germany, Belgium and Portugal.
Pasquino Vincenzo 'ndrangheta
Code names, 'Ndrangheta business and Albanian contacts: what Brazilian authorities want to know from Pasquino
Vincenzo Pasquino lived in the city of San Paolo and from there, according to investigators, he negotiated with the criminal faction. He had already provided the code names of the Brazilian criminals, which were omitted from the document so as not to hinder the investigation. According to Pasquino, in 2020, a trafficker left from Brasilia, made several stops in Brazil to deceive the authorities, until arriving in Aracaju, where the Italian lived, to handle a load of cocaine to Europe. The agreement was to divide the load between Brazilians and Italians in Europe.
«Brazilian criminals use cryptocurrencies, invest in the stock market and even buy ethanol factories. The methamphetamine and fentanyl business has recently been added to cocaine in synergy with the Mexican cartels that have also begun to infiltrate Brazil». ( g.curcio@corrierecal.it )
