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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, February 24th 2026 - 15:53 UTC

Tag: First Capital Command (PCC)

  • Friday, February 6th 2026 - 17:37 UTC

    Tunnel under Montevideo’s historic district foils bank raid plot, raises regional crime links

    Investigators described the tunnel as a purpose-built connection between the storefront and the sewer network, allowing the group to move underground toward its target

    According to the Interior Ministry, the plot relied on a commercial premises leased in mid-2025, from which an access point was allegedly opened into the sewers to advance toward a nearby financial institution. The broader investigation began on September 11 with an anonymous tip about a suspected drug-selling point in Neptunia, in Canelones, and expanded as investigators tracked a network with logistical presence in Montevideo.

  • Thursday, April 25th 2024 - 09:37 UTC

    Four Paraguayan prison inmates dead in rival gang clash

    All the deceased were inmates, three of them from the Rotela side

    Clashes between inmates belonging to the autochthonous Rotela Clan and Brazil's First Capital Command (PCC) left four of them dead and three others wounded Wednesday at the Regional Penitentiary in Pedro Juan Caballero, in the Paraguayan department of Amambay. A team of the National Police's Special Operations Group (GEO) and the riot squad were deployed to restore normalcy.

  • Wednesday, March 13th 2024 - 09:08 UTC

    Drug trafficking gangs: Brazil's PCC operating in Chile

    The PCC Chile branch is headed by Juan Bayron Nataly Santander, alias “Pelado”

    Following a confession from a Chilean prison inmate, it was determined that São Paulo's notorious First Capital Command (PCC) had expanded its operations, it was reported in Santiago. In addition, raids in correctional facilities in Brazil detected communications further corroborated the news since proof of communications between the two countries was detected.

  • Monday, November 27th 2023 - 08:07 UTC

    Brazilian drug gang goes global, The Economist reports

    Gakiya said he was targeted by the PCC

    According to an article in The Economist last week, Brazil's largest drug gang now has links throughout Europe. The First Capital Command (PCC), a gang officially born after a deadly football match between prison inmates in São Paulo in August 1993, has grown to some 40,000 life members and another 60,000 “contractors,” which would make it one of the world's largest criminal groups.

  • Wednesday, August 7th 2019 - 08:30 UTC

    Brazilian police in major operation against the country's most powerful gang

    In February, Brazil moved several jailed leaders of the PCC into federal jails, in a bid to curtail the power they wielded from behind bars in less secure state prisons.

    Brazilian police on Tuesday carried out a major operation against the First Capital Command (PCC) gang, in the latest attempt to try to hobble the country’s most powerful and sophisticated organized crime group.