Prosecutors and police dismantle first PCC cell in Chile
The Southern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office and the PDI neutralised around twenty members of the first PCC cell detected in Chile. The investigation intersected with the murder of a carabinero in Renca.
First cell of the First Command of the Capital dismantled in Chile following early morning operation
In the early hours of Monday 28 September, the Southern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office and the Police of Investigations (PDI) neutralised at least twenty criminals who formed the first cell detected in the country of the First Command of the Capital (PCC), a Brazilian criminal organisation considered amongst the most dangerous in Latin America. As confirmed by ciperchile.cl, the operation included detentions and raids on homes and penitentiary facilities at various locations across the country.
Several members of the group were already detained in Chilean prisons, from where they were recruited by the organisation and continued operating for it. The proceedings made it possible to neutralise both those who were at liberty and those already serving sentences, thus dismantling the complete structure.
Connection to the murder of carabinero Alejandro Ortiz
ciperchile.cl confirmed that the inquiry into the Chilean cell of the PCC intersected with the investigation into the murder of carabinero Alejandro Ortiz, which occurred in Renca on 27 August last year. The intersection arose when it was established that Francisco Rivera Galaz, one of those accused of that homicide and who has been a fugitive for a month, was also a member of the PCC structure that was under surveillance by the prosecutor's office and the PDI.
Origin of the investigation: "Operation Solís" in Brazil
The investigations into the group had their starting point in information obtained in Brazil during the so-called "Operation Solís", carried out in 2021. In that procedure, 507 kilos of base cocaine were seized and electronic devices were confiscated containing records of members of the organisation who operated in several countries, amongst them Chile.
On the basis of information shared by Brazilian authorities, the Chilean Public Ministry opened a confidential investigation. In March 2024, T13 Reportajes had revealed the existence of a report sent by the Brazilian prosecutor's office to Chile following that operation, in which eleven Chileans linked to the organisation were identified. According to that information, by then the identity of six of them—five Chileans and a Brazilian citizen—had already been established, and only one was at liberty.
The PCC: prison origins and continental expansion
The PCC emerged in 1993 in a São Paulo prison, following an episode in which Brazilian security forces killed more than a hundred prisoners during the suppression of a riot. From Brazilian prisons, the organisation began a process of expansion that led it to become one of the largest in Latin America.
In June last year, the United States designated the PCC as a foreign terrorist organisation, according to InSight Crime, a centre specialising in analysis of organised crime. The structure has also been linked to some of the largest criminal heists recorded outside Brazil: its members have been identified as the perpetrators of the major robbery in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, where an armed group stole approximately US$40 million from the warehouses of a securities company. InSight Crime has also identified the PCC as responsible for a series of murders linked to the dispute over the control of drug trafficking in that country.
Source: Google News CL — Crime