MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil shields borders with state of the art scanners and drones, ahead of major global events

A major display of modern equipment to prevent surprises

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced this week plans to strengthen the fight against cross-border organized crime by equipping state and local governments with high-tech scanners and surveillance equipment.

Rousseff said in her weekly radio show that each State would receive a mobile scanner, with border States receiving two of the latest high-tech scanners.

“These devices are ultramodern scanners that can detect weapons and drugs hidden inside trucks and cars, even in the tires or bodywork of the vehicles,” she said, adding her government will also provide border States with nearly 15 million U.S. dollars to install surveillance cameras.

“These cameras will be installed in 60 cities, and States will also install systems to transmit and monitor the images,” she added.

During the broadcast, the president provided an overview of Brazil's two-year-old Border Strategic Plan, which last month entered a new phase with the launching of an operation involving 33,500 military troops and more than 1,100 civilian agents.

During the first days of the operation, Rousseff said, 184,000 vehicles and 12,000 ships were inspected, detecting more than 6 tons of illicit drugs and 8 tons of explosives.

”By protecting our borders, we help to increase the safety of our own population and that of upcoming large-scale events such as the (FIFA) Confederations Cup in June, and (Catholic) World Youth Day the following month,” she said.

Brazil will also host the 2014 World Cup soccer championship and the 2016 Olympic Games.

The border operation has been aided by four unmanned drones to be used to provide security at the coming events, revealed Rousseff.

Brazil has borders with all South American countries, except Chile and Ecuador. The most vulnerable border areas for arms, drugs trafficking, explosives and contraband, according to security forces are Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina.