Criminal Governance and New Criminal Enterprises: An Analysis of the “City Domination” in Brazil

Abstract

Different criminal organizations set different dynamics of social control, with (in)formal rules and establishing what the literature calls criminal governance. In some cases, these criminal groups make informal arrangements with different criminal actors to maintain their power and make economic profits. In this sense, we investigate the relationship between established criminal organizations, especially the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and criminal gangs that are involved in property crimes, more specifically bank in Brazil. Managing the crime behind bars, PCC established a new logic of criminal governance in the State of São Paulo, exploring the markets of illegal drugs. In the past years, we have witnessed PCC expanding their criminal activities through other parts of Latin America and applying their logic to gain and maintain control of international drug trafficking routes and, in some cases, even the production of illegal drugs. However, even though drug trafficking remains the most profitable enterprise, other criminal actors, such as bank thieves, seem to be connected with PCC and are building new criminal enterprises. Conducting fieldwork in the city of Curitiba, the capital of the State of Paraná, we observed how these gangs operate, their techniques, and their connections with established criminal actors.