South America's Most Powerful Criminal Group Continues Its Invasion of the Amazon Forest in Search of Gold

SEATTLE - Recent reports are signaling that Brazil's biggest and best-organized criminal organization known as Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), or First Capital Command, continues to take advantage of the lack of police presence in remote areas of the Amazon forest in order to take over the region's gold mining activities.

Born in the 1990's in the wake of the 1992 Carandiru prison massacre where Brazilian security forces killed over 100 prisoners following a riot, the PCC's stronghold is the city of São Paulo, Brazil's most populous and economically important state.

But in recent years, the criminal group has expanded its enterprise to nearly every country in South America as well as establishing ties with European crime groups. And according to a recent report by The Washington Post, PCC continues to target some parts of the Amazon forest, concretely near the Brazil-Venezuela-Guyana border, where their illegal mining business is transforming the ecosystem and the lives of Indigenous tribes.

PCC's environmental crime

The emergence of the PCC in the Amazon forest and its diversification into illegal mining and logging has had a significant impact in the region. As they continue their pursuit of natural resources, the group has destabilized the Amazonian biome and caused the deaths of hundreds of Indigenous people living in the rainforest.

According to an annual report released in July by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), a total of 208 Indigenous people were murdered in 2023, a 15% increased compared to the 180 deaths reported in 2022.

Indigenous communities faced other forms of violence too, with Cimi reporting at least 276 territorial invasions related to illegal resource extraction, causing huge environmental damage to the region.

Gold mining is poisoning the Amazon forest with mercury

According to experts, illegal gold mining only accounts for a small fraction of Amazon deforestation —far less than agriculture— but its effects are worse. Mercury, used to collect and purify gold traces found in the soil, is contaminating the soil and water killing both the forest and the wildlife.

According to the Hutukara Yanomami Association, by late 2021 enough forest had been lost in the area to cover half of Manhattan due to illegal gold mining.

Wiping out illegal mining has become harder

When sworn in as Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to wipe out illegal mining that boomed under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro and reduce illegal deforestation to zero by the end of his term in 2026.

But despite Lula's intentions, the task has become harder to repress due to Indigenous people entering the business.

That is the case for some regions of the Munduruku territory, where tribal leaders estimate that 40% of the gold mining on the reservation is being carried out by Indigenous people.

"The income here is gold mining," said general store owner Claudemir Pereira to the Post. "The majority of the population here depends on this, even the Indigenous people, many of whom work mine for gold to survive."