Below is an English translation of a news article published, in Portuguese, in Direito & Justiça Minas (Estado de Minas), Direito&Justiça 50ª edição providing media coverage of the seminar I Permanent International Forum on the Geopolitics of Transnational Organized Crime, Financial Intelligence, and International Legal Cooperation, held at the European Parliament in Brussels on June 9–10, 2026.
The report summarizes the key discussions and insights shared by prosecutors, judges, public security authorities, academics, and policymakers from Brazil and several European countries. It highlights the growing challenges posed by transnational organized crime, the evolution of criminal organizations operating across borders, and the increasing importance of international cooperation, financial intelligence, and coordinated legal responses in addressing these threats.
Enjoy the reading!
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Transnational Crime debated at the European Parliament
Décio Freire
Attorney and President of the Advisory Council of Diários Associados
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro and FGV Europe, the international branch of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), held the 1st Permanent International Forum on the Geopolitics of Transnational Organized Crime, Financial Intelligence, and International Legal Cooperation on June 9 and 10 at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Coordinated by Portuguese Member of the European Parliament Ana Miguel Pedro, the event brought together leaders from the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office, public security specialists, and distinguished academics from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Colombia, as well as representatives of all these countries at the European Parliament.
The first criminal faction in Brazil, the Falange Vermelha (Red Phalanx), was founded in 1979 at the Ilha Grande prison. Initially created to protest for better prison conditions, the group spread throughout Rio de Janeiro and, by the late 1980s, was already engaged in bank robberies, kidnapping for ransom, and marijuana trafficking. With the arrival of cocaine in Brazil in the early 1990s, organized crime effectively emerged, and the Falange Vermelha evolved into the Comando Vermelho (Red Command). In 1993, the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital – First Capital Command) was founded in the Tremembé prison in São Paulo as a reaction to the Carandiru Massacre.
This history was presented to the European audience by Antônio José Campos Moreira, Attorney General of the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor’s Office, who also stated that criminal factions currently control a quarter of Rio de Janeiro’s territory, holding approximately 2.5 million people under their influence. Romão Ávila, Attorney General of Mato Grosso do Sul and national coordinator of the organized crime task force created by the College of Attorneys General, explained the evolution of the PCC and its first process of international expansion through its takeover of drug trafficking routes in Paraguay.
According to Barbara Sargenti, Italy’s National Anti-Mafia Coordinator, Brazilian organized crime uses Portugal as a gateway into Europe. Furthermore, 50% of the cocaine arriving in Europe leaves Brazil through the Port of Santos, as demonstrated by Fábio George Cruz da Nóbrega, Deputy Coordinator of the National Gaeco. The drug is currently sold for approximately €18,000 per kilogram, according to Daniel Garabett, Chief Prosecutor for Organized Crime in Frankfurt, Germany. Antonio Balsamo, President of the Palermo Court of Appeal in Italy, reported that since 2024 he has applied asset confiscation measures as a means of financially suffocating criminal organizations.
Congressman Guilherme Derrite, rapporteur of the Anti-Criminal Organizations Law, emphasized that Brazil is the world’s second-largest consumer of cocaine and that criminal organizations now operate like multinational corporations, with drug trafficking accounting for only 20% of their revenues.
Italian prosecutor Catarina Chinnici, daughter of Judge Rocco Chinnici, who was assassinated by the Sicilian Mafia with a car bomb in 1983, reported that there are more than 800 mafia structures operating in Europe. According to General Quintavalle Cecere, commander of Italy’s Anti-Mafia Financial Police, Europol has already identified 400 technical money-laundering structures, and a 2026 study by the University of Palermo shows that US$158 billion involved cryptocurrency transactions and cocaine sales on the dark web.
Horácio Correia Pinto, Justice of Portugal’s Supreme Court, warned that “security cannot come before legality, since the law is non-negotiable,” and criticized decisions that permit the use of so-called soft drugs. Meanwhile, former Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa Delgado, known for his fight against organized crime, stressed that organized crime is fundamentally an economic phenomenon and must therefore be confronted through financial suffocation.
The Forum’s final conclusion was summarized by Anabela Salgueiro Narciso Ribeiro, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Coimbra. According to her, combating organized crime depends heavily on integrated transnational cooperation between Brazilian security forces and countries of the European Union. As MEP Hélder Sousa Silva observed:
“Unfortunately, much attention was given to accelerating trade through the Mercosur–EU agreement, but little thought was given to the increase in drug trafficking from South America to Europe.”
According to him, the PCC is already present in 30 countries, operating “with the violence of an Italian mafia but the efficiency of a multinational corporation.”
Attorney General Romão Ávila also presented Google data showing that cybercrime, much of it committed by organized crime groups, generates approximately US$8 trillion in revenue, making it the world’s third-largest economy, behind only the United States and China.
In closing, Justice Carlos Pires Brandão of Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ) emphasized the importance of the event, noting that:
“An appropriate judicial response depends on qualified enforcement, but the STJ still lacks an adequate diagnosis of organized crime.”
He concluded that this type of debate is essential. The Forum intends to publish a Brussels Charter and will become a permanent initiative.
Economic Impact of Cybercrime
Digital crimes represent the third-largest GDP in the world, behind only the United States and China. A large portion is committed by organized crime.
| Economy | GDP/Revenue |
| United States | US$18.6 trillion |
| China | US$11.2 trillion |
| Cybercrime | US$8 trillion |
| Germany | US$4.4 trillion |
| Brazil | US$1.8 trillion |
D&J 50th Edition
Today, Direito & Justiça Minas celebrates its 50th edition. Since May 2024, it has interviewed 253 leading authorities from Brazil’s justice system and all three branches of government, providing thousands of readers with high-level information and expertise that have made D&J one of the country’s most important legal publications.