World of Crime's Major Threats for 2026: Brazil's PCC

The PCC have gone from largest gang in Brazil to global powerhouse, controlling billion-dollar criminal economies in fuel, finance, football, cocaine and real estate. They may only be getting started.

For years, Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Capital Command - PCC) has been one of the most important actors in the global cocaine trade. It built its power by dominating the port of Santos near Sao Paulo, controlling routes across Brazil and neighbouring countries, embedding itself in Bolivia and Paraguay, and supplying European markets through long-standing partnerships with Italy’s ’Ndrangheta.

But accelerating through the 2020s, the PCC cemented its position. But rumors of its international expansion, especially into Portugal or Portuguese-speaking African countries, remain unverified.

This changed in 2024 and 2025.

During this period, the organisation moved beyond relying on facilitators and partners overseas and began consolidating its own infrastructure.

Portugal offers the clearest example.