MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

BBC says legal weapons from Paraguay end up in Comando Vermelho’s hands

Other arms suppliers to the CV allegedly include Argentine dealer Diego Dirisio and his wife

A recent report from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found a link between Brazil's infamous Comando Vermelho group's gun supply and Paraguay. Arms legally imported to that country end up in the possession of the outlaw group.

The article appearing in BBC Brazil, written by Luiz Fernando Toledo and Julia Braun, was based on a study by researchers Bruno Langeani and Natalia Pollachi published in the Journal of Illicit Economics and Development, which analyzed weapons seizures in Brazil between 2019 and 2023. The data shows a steady escalation in trafficking, with seizures increasing from 1,139 weapons in 2019 to 1,650 in 2023.

“This type of weaponry is crucial for criminal groups to exercise territorial control, intimidate residents, and confront the police,” the article mentioned. Most guns stemmed from the United States and Europe. “Of the weapons seized during the study period, 738 were of US origin,” it was explained. In the most recent records, 94.7% of identified weapons were foreign-made, predominantly American.

The typical trafficking route involves the legal importation of rifles and pistols into Paraguay, which are then illicitly transported across the border into Brazilian territory. The study also noted direct shipments from the US to Brazil, and an increasing trend of importing individual weapon parts for clandestine assembly within Brazil to hinder tracing.

Trafficking is not limited to the Americas. In December 2023, the joint Brazilian and Paraguayan Operation Dakovo seized some 2,000 weapons worth around US$5,200,000, originating in Croatia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Argentine national Diego Dirisio and his Paraguay-based company -International Auto Supply (IAS)-were identified as allegedly responsible for importing these European weapons intended for the CV and the First Capital Command (PCC). Dirisio and his wife, Julieta Nardi, were recently detained in Argentina. ”I have no connection to what is happening in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). I don't know anyone from Comando Vermelho, I don't know anyone from PCC. My only sales have been absolutely legal through police and military cooperatives, to police and military personnel,” Dirisio was quoted as saying.

The sophistication of the criminal arsenals was recently demonstrated during Operation Containment on October 28, 2025. This massive police intervention, targeting the Comando Vermelho in Rio de Janeiro’s Penha and Alemão favela complexes, mobilized 2,500 agents. The deployment, which resulted in 132 deaths (including four police officers), seized 118 firearms, including 91 rifles and 29 pistols, along with explosives and drugs. Authorities noted that the CV's high degree of equipment was demonstrated when drones launched grenades at security forces during the clashes.

These findings prompted a strong political response in Paraguay, where President Santiago Peña officially declared the CV and the PCC as terrorist organizations and ordered the reinforcement of military presence at the borders to prevent criminals from fleeing.

The Comando Vermelho (CV) or Red Command is Brazil's oldest criminal group. It has evolved over half a century from a prison self-protection group into a vast criminal organization with tens of thousands of members, functioning as a virtual parallel state in some areas. The CV emerged in the 1970s in a prison on Ilha Grande, during Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985). It formed as an alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas to protect themselves from guard brutality and internal violence. But a self-protection militia called “Falange Vermelha,” influenced by social justice ideals, soon evolved into an organized criminal group focused on bank robbery and major assaults. Attempts by prison authorities to dismantle the group by dispersing its leaders to different prisons inadvertently helped the CV expand throughout the entire Brazilian penal system.

The CV has always been based in Rio de Janeiro, consolidating its power as the dominant cocaine trafficking faction and building a strong social support base within the city's favelas. The CV is now considered a national and international threat. It maintains significant influence in prisons nationwide, with the Amazonas region and western Mato Grosso serving as secondary strongholds. Crucially, the group has a strong presence in Bolivia, where it secures a substantial portion of its cocaine supply.

Beyond drug and arms trafficking, the CV engages in extortion, kidnapping, loan-sharking, and armored truck robbery. The group has even embraced technology, developing and using a clandestine mobile transport app called “Rotax Mobili” to finance drug trafficking, which authorities estimated generated over US$180,000 monthly before being shut down.

The CV's alliance with the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil’s largest criminal group (which was modeled after the CV), fractured in 2016. This breakdown triggered a wave of prison violence both nationally and internationally, including a bloody 2021 riot in a Paraguayan prison.

The group also faces hostility from local militias (composed of active and retired security personnel) and the Terceiro Comando Puro.

Key leaders, such as Luiz Fernando da Costa (“Fernandinho Beira-Mar”) and Márcio dos Santos Nepomuceno (“Marcinho VP”), continue to direct the organization's strategy from within prison walls. Beira-Mar was arrested in 2001 in Colombia, where the CV is believed to maintain ties with FARC remnants.

Insight Crime estimates that by 2020, the CV had about 30,000 members and, as of 2023, had regained control over the largest territorial area in Rio de Janeiro.