Brazil & Southern Cone - June 2021

Fahd Jamil Georges, a Brazilian criminal who was known as the ‘king of the border’ with Paraguay for his illicit business in the region, turned himself in to the authorities on 19 April. His surrender is evidence of the changed criminal dynamics in the Brazil-Paraguay border region, where the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) international drug trafficking organisation (DTO) is now in control, supplanting individuals like Jamil.

Jamil was once described as the leader of the drug trade on Brazil’s porous border with Paraguay, where he has been active since the 1990s. In 2005, he was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for international drug trafficking, corruption, and fraud, but he fled to Paraguay (in 2009, a Brazilian court overturned the sentence). In Paraguay, Jamil presented himself as a wealthy businessman and land-owner, and is said to have had dealings with powerful names there, including former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018).

Now 79, Jamil has been under arrest since turning himself in to Brazil’s federal police in Campo Grande, the state capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, in April, after 10 months on the run. He faces a long list of charges, including that of leading a criminal organisation involved in arms trafficking, corruption of public officials and homicides, and with links to armed militias. His son Flávio Correa Jamil Georges, wanted on similar charges, is still on the run.  

Jamil reportedly signed a letter before giving himself up, rejecting the charges levelled against him and saying he had always collaborated with the security forces. According to the Brazilian press, his lawyers say he turned himself in due to poor health and the hope of being granted house arrest, as well as following threats from the PCC. “The PCC is going after me in [the border city of] Ponta Porã,” Jamil said during a virtual court audience after turning himself in.

PCC in control

Jamil was no longer as notorious and formidable a criminal as he once was, but his surrender to the police serves as a further reminder of “how completely the Brazilian gang [PCC] has come to rule this frontier”, specialist website Insight Crime notes. In recent years, as the PCC has grown its presence and power in Paraguay, the DTO has come to take almost complete control of the illicit economy in the border region, in parallel with the retreat of a rival Brazilian DTO, the Comando Vermelho (CV).