Brazil’s PCC gang threatens ‘World Cup terror’
Paramilitary police personnel patrol an alley during a raid at Rocinha shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 14, 2012.
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil's powerful PCC gang has threatened to launch terror-style attacks during next year's FIFA World Cup as well as at the 2014 presidential polls.
The PCC, or First Command of the Capital, which operates out of São Paulo jails, vowed to unleash a "World Cup of terror" if its leaders are transferred and isolated in prisons.
The threats come just a week after daily paper O Estado de São Paulo revealed the details of an in-depth report by state prosecutors into the gang's activities, including a plot to kill São Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin.
The PCC's recent plans were discovered when phone calls were intercepted by police intelligence. The gang has vowed to attack both on the streets and in the jails.
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"I've passed the message along to my men so that they can up their attention when attending to calls, when parking their cars and when they're on their way home," said military police Colonel Benedito Roberto Meira.
In 2012, after the PCC ordered attacks on police, 106 military police officers were killed. Others were also killed during the attacks, bringing the death toll to more than 300.
The PCC was started in 1993 by jailed narco-traffickers in São Paulo and is known for now having several divisions in charge of coordinating drug trade, committing other crimes, providing legal defense to its members and managing its finances.
It is now suspected to have 11,000 members, including 6,000 in jail, and has operations in Paraguay and Bolivia as well.
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