VERY ORGANIZED CRIME
Mega police operation exposes organized crime’s grip on fuel and finance

Law enforcement agents gathered in a São Paulo police garrison in the early hours of the day, moments before launching a massive operation targeting the PCC. Photo: RFB
This morning, Brazilian authorities launched what they call the largest operation yet against the penetration of organized crime into the country’s formal economy, targeting a sprawling money-laundering and tax-evasion network tied to the Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Command of the Capital, PCC).
The US government describes the PCC as “the most powerful organized crime group in Brazil and among the most powerful in the world.”
Roughly 1,400 federal marshals, state prosecutors, tax inspectors and police descended simultaneously on offices in multiple states, including São Paulo’s Faria Lima Avenue — Brazil’s answer to Wall Street…

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