Brazil & Southern Cone - October 2024

Brazilian authorities as well as public security experts have expressed concern over the connections between organised crime and gun owners with CAC licences (a certification for hunters, sport shooters, and gun collectors). Police in São Paulo state highlighted these suspected links during an investigation in September into armed robberies carried out by criminal gangs. The guns for these attacks were mainly supplied by CAC licence holders, while footage has also emerged which suggests that licenced gun owners have been giving shooting lessons to gang members.

On 10 September the São Paulo state prosecutors’ office (MPSP) announced that it had launched a new phase of Operation ‘Baal’, a joint investigation between the MPSP’s special unit against organised crime (Gaeco) and the federal police (PF) which was first launched in May this year. Gaeco and PF personnel are seeking to uncover the perpetrators of a coordinated series of attacks last year in which suspected gang members attempted to rob vehicles transporting large sums of money. The attacks took place in Mato Grosso state, but the suspected masterminds, suppliers, and financiers of the plan are believed to be in other states such as São Paulo.

In May, Gaeco and the PF noted that the weapons used in the failed robbery were mainly supplied by CAC licence holders and arrested some CACs, including a man named Otávio de Magalhães. In September, police arrested more suspects, some of whom are believed to be members of the powerful Brazilian drug trafficking group Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). During this police raid, investigators even found video footage appearing to show De Magalhães giving shooting lessons to PCC members.

The case arising from the attempted robbery in Mato Grosso last year has reinforced the PF’s previous suspicions about the links between CACs, drug trafficking organisations (DTOs), and armed robberies. In addition to Operation Baal, the PF in Bahia state launched another investigation into CACs, dubbed Operation ‘Fogo Amigo’ (‘friendly fire’), which also began in May this year. Fogo Amigo is an investigation into CACs and owners of gun shops in Bahia, Alagoas, and Pernambuco states, who are believed to be arms suppliers for criminal gangs in north-eastern Brazil.

Brazilian public security NGO and think tank Instituto Sou da Paz (ISP) has also warned of the blurred boundaries between the legal and illegal firearms markets and called for better regulations on gun ownership. Data collected by ISP showed that an increasing number of organised crime cases involved crimes committed using weapons supplied by CACs. The rise in cases occurred during the presidency of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), and ISP has explicitly blamed Bolsonaro for passing legislation which made it easier for civilians to access high-calibre weapons. In 2018, before Bolsonaro took office, the country only registered three criminal cases which involved gang members using CAC-licenced weapons, but in 2022, the number of cases rose to 11, and in 2023 a record 12 cases were registered, according to ISP.

ISP noted that it is not only major transnational DTOs such as the PCC which benefited from Bolsonaro’s loosening of gun control regulations, but also gangs that run regional drug trafficking routes and other local criminal enterprises, such as the Primeiro Grupo Catarinense in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Okaida in the north-eastern state of Paraíba, and Amigos do Estado in the central state of Goiás.

Shooting range rules

In July last year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a decree which redressed Bolsonaro’s pro-gun legacy and tightened restrictions on gun ownership, setting new regulations for CACs, among other measures. The decree also imposed restrictions on shooting ranges, such as a rule which prohibits them from operating within 1km of a school. In early September this year, right-wing lawmakers advanced legislation proposing changes to Lula’s decree, but the legislation was withdrawn after government-aligned legislators reportedly promised that Lula would issue a new gun control decree with more lenient rules for shooting ranges. At the time of writing, Lula had not yet signed this new decree.