PCC operates in 16 European countries, São Paulo prosecutors say — The Guardian
The Brazilian criminal group Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) operates in 16 European countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. This is stated in an undisclosed report by the São Paulo prosecutor’s office, based in part on data from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, reviewed by The Guardian.
Presence in Europe
According to the outlet’s four-month investigation, groups and cartels from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States have been officially identified in at least 12 European countries. These are groups identified during police operations, transnational investigations and court cases involving intermediaries, members, cells or operational networks.
Such structures have their most visible presence in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Their activity has also been recorded in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia, while the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime adds Bulgaria to this list.
Among the organizations named in the investigation are Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, Colombia’s Clan del Golfo, ELN and FARC dissident groups, Brazil’s PCC and Comando Vermelho, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as well as the Barrio 18 and MS-13 groups.
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Growth of the cocaine market
From 2014 to 2024, the volume of cocaine seized in Europe increased by 471%, while law enforcement dismantled more local laboratories processing cocaine derivatives. Daniel Brombacher, director of the European Observatory of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said Latin American groups are also appearing in regions where they previously had no infrastructure. He mentioned the exposure of methamphetamine laboratories run by Mexican groups in southern France, northeastern Poland and Brandenburg.
Europol reported that, of the 731 most dangerous criminal networks operating in Europe, 149 are linked to Latin American organizations. Sixty-seven of these networks have Latin American members, while 22 are predominantly made up of them.
According to data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime cited in the article, global cocaine production in 2024 amounted to between 3,800 and 4,700 tonnes — more than four times higher than in 2014. Europe has become an important market because of its higher profitability for criminal organizations compared with the United States.
