CRIME-BRAZIL: Taskforce Gives ‘Operation Clean Hands’ Bite

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 9 1999 (IPS) - Brazil’s offensive against organised crime has sharper teeth with the creation of a special taskforce to catch criminals and ensure that “operation clean hands,” launched by parliament, stays on target.

The surprising success of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission (CPI) in thwarting a national drug-trafficking network and uncovering its infiltration into government branches was the catalyst for the new force.

The CPI, set up by parliament’s Lower House in April, obtained sufficient evidence to arrest and try more than 60 people, and to likely remove five legislators from office – one has already been arrested.

Total arrests should climb to at least 150, said the commission’s rapporteur, Moroni Torgan, who estimates there are 200,000 people involved in the illegal drug trade in Brazil, “more than the number of soldiers in Brazil’s Army.”

Representative Torgan, a former chief of the Federal Police and leader of the CPI investigations that uncovered the alarming reach of organised crime in Brazil, is now in the same position as the judges in Italy who launched a successful offensive against their country’s mafia organisations.

Torgan defends bold government measures, such as breaking off diplomatic relations with Suriname, which he accused of naming drug traffickers to work in its Brazilian embassy, according to an interview in Sunday’s Jornal do Brazil newspaper.

Suriname’s current ambassador in Brasilia, Rupert Lawrence Christopher, was the “right hand” of former Suriname president Desi Bouterse (1981-1988), “a wanted international drug dealer,” accused Torgan, who added that Bouterse’s son also works at the embassy.

Several such revelations, especially the infiltration of the Judicial, Legislative and Executive branches of government, seem to confirm that the drug trade is more widespread than previously thought.

In response to the growing problem, Brazil’s president Fernando Henrique Cardoso initiated a far-reaching plan to fight organised crime, involving several government organisations.

We must give the CPI investigations teeth, which requires police and judicial action, explained Justice minister José Carlos Dias upon announcing the taskforce Monday. He described it as a group “with greater agility” to fight organised crime.

Two Federal Police chiefs, two prosecutors from the Public Ministry and representatives from the Justice Ministry, the Central Bank and the tax authority are included on the taskforce, which will be formalised over the next few days.

President Cardoso and several ministers met Tuesday with the parliamentary commission’s leaders to define anti-drug strategies and mutual co-operation. Their goal is to prevent Brazil from becoming a “new Colombia” by stopping the spread of the drug trade’s power.

If the CPI had not come up with hard evidence, “in five years drug trafficking in this country would have reached a level like Colombia’s,” Torgan predicted.

Brazil’s situation had grown complicated because its extensive territory borders the world’s major cocaine-producing countries. Police repression was concentrated on international drug routes and not on combatting “internal trafficking,” explained the legislator.

The parliamentary commission uncovered ties between criminal groups operating in 14 of Brazil’s 27 states with the collaboration of dozens of police. The CPI also identified money- laundering systems that send illegal drug profits overseas, as well as other related criminal activities.

Stolen cargo trucks, a serious problem in Brazil, are used to transport automobiles to be sold in Bolivia in order to finance the purchase of drugs and weapons, revealed Jorge Meres, a former member of the criminal network.

Meres, who was a driver of the stolen trucks, became a key witness for the CPI when he decided to denounce the crime organisation and the legislative deputies who lead it. The assassination of his wife and the government’s offer for protection prompted him to offer his testimony. Brazil approved a national witness protection law earlier this year.

The special taskforce to combat organised crime will complement the CPI’s work. Its mobility will facilitate necessary measures, such as travelling to locations where organised crime has been reported or where there is an emergency situation, affirmed minister Dias.

The Central Bank will make an important contribution to the investigations by providing the CPI with information within 72 hours, said the commission’s president, representative Magno Malta.

Rapid access to information on bank accounts belonging to organised crime suspects could be a decisive factor for successful investigations, Malta stated.