Danger! Foreign criminal gangs put Paraguay in emergency

Transnational crime is one of the main security problems facing Paraguay due to two illegal groups from Brazil

Marcelo Pinheiro expelled from the country of Guaraní

For some years, the so-called "triple border" has become a real headache for the three countries that form this geographical region, especially for Paraguay and Brazil.

Leer en español: ¡Peligro! Las bandas criminales extranjeras ponen en jaque a Paraguay

For example, one of the drug trafficking groups that is operating in Guaraní territory is Comando Vermelho. This band has made headlines this week because one of its leaders, Marcelo Pinheiro (Alias Piloto), murdered a Paraguayan official in the city called Asunción.

According to the newspaper El Comercio, the situation was:

"The Brazilian drug trafficker Marcelo Pinheiro was expelled on Monday, November 19, 2018, from Paraguay to Brazil by order of the president, Mario Abdo Benitez, after the head of the criminal group Comando Vermelho murdered a woman who visited him in his cell in order to avoid his extradition to his country. "

But this situation goes beyond extradition, since the Paraguayan president, Mario Benítez, has decided to appoint two new leaders of the National Police in Paraguay, called Bartolomé Baéz and Luis Cantero, after the murder of the woman, as reported by the mentioned media.

However, it is worth asking: what have these criminal gangs done in the "triple border"?

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Comando Vermelho and the First Capital Command

The two largest criminal groups that are operating in this Latin American region are El Comando Vermelho (San Pablo) and the First Capital Command (Rio de Janeiro).

These two narcotics trafficking groups have in their files, according to El Clarín, the following crimes:

"Assaults with spectacular booties, executions, shootings, a supposed car bomb detonated in a controlled manner by the police, arrests of drug traffickers who, still imprisoned, defy the authorities and accuse them of being corrupt"

It should be noted that within its actions outside the law, its main economic activities are the illicit sale of weapons and psychoactive drugs.

However, it is the power of these Rio de Janeiro groups in different countries that, this month, have dared to threaten the Attorney General of Paraguay, Sandra Quiñónez after an operation carried out in "the triple border" where three Brazilians were dejected, as reported by this same media.

Building a wall in the Paraguay River?

Following the style of Donald Trump, the deputy Márcio Tadeu, akin to the ideas of President Bolsonaro, two weeks ago proposed the construction of a wall between his country and Paraguay to contain the transnational drug trafficking.

This was recorded by the newspaper Última Hora:

"Several of the proposals of Colonel Márcio Tadeu de Lemos come directly from the playbook of Trump … In the interview, even, Lemos suggested building " a very high wall "along the southwestern border of Brazil with Paraguay to block the arms dealers and smugglers."

However, the idea of a wall on the border between these two countries is not new at all, because as stated in the aforementioned media, in 2007 the construction of a border barrier with a cost of 2.7 million dollars was proposed. This idea never materialized.

LatinAmerican Post | Miguel Diaz

Translated from: '¡Peligro! Las bandas criminales extranjeras ponen en jaque a Paraguay'

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