Brazilian drug cartels recruit young Bolivians for narcotrafficking, warns Minister Oviedo
Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo confirmed that the PCC and Comando Vermelho are recruiting Bolivians in border zones. Four murders were recorded in San Ignacio de Velasco in less than 36 hours.
PCC and Comando Vermelho recruit Bolivian citizens on the border with Brazil
According to noticiasfides.com, Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo confirmed that Brazilian criminal organisations such as the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho have begun recruiting Bolivian citizens for activities linked to narcotrafficking and contract killing in zones bordering Brazil.
Oviedo pointed out that the presence of both organisations in Bolivia is not recent. The PCC and Comando Vermelho maintain a "permanent and continuous installation for a long time" in the country, according to the official's explanation. The Government is working on dismantling these structures, with a focus on regions bordering Brazil.
The minister identified Pando, San Matías and San Ignacio de Velasco as points of penetration by organised crime. "It has not come into being by spontaneous generation," he stated, and announced a new police plan for San Matías and San Ignacio de Velasco.
"These criminal organisations are beginning to recruit our fellow citizens. We are working and hope to have results in a short time," Oviedo declared before the Legislative Assembly, where the extension of the state of exception for a further 90 days was debated.
The official also announced the deployment of elite personnel on the border with Brazil in response to recorded levels of violence. "The levels of violence that have been reached are already intolerable," he stated.
Four murders took place in San Ignacio de Velasco in less than 36 hours, a fact that heightened the authorities' concern about the advance of organised crime in the region.
A day earlier, the governor of Santa Cruz, Juan Pablo Velasco, had warned about the recruitment of young people in the department during the Departmental Council for Public Security. "Young people from Santa Cruz are being recruited by this organised crime," he stated, and called for strengthening intelligence efforts to identify those who organise, finance and recruit young people for criminal activities.
"Not one more young person from Santa Cruz can be recruited by organised crime. Not one more family mourning a loved one," declared Velasco, who demanded coordinated action between the national Government, the Police, the Armed Forces, the Public Ministry, and departmental and municipal authorities.
Source: Google News BO — Crime