Comando Vermelho, the Brazilian cartel that has penetrated the Colombian-Peruvian Amazon
The criminal organization has built strong alliances with illegal groups from neighboring countries. For many members, the only way out other than prison or death is joining an evangelical church
Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil’s largest criminal organizations, has so firmly installed itself in the Amazon that it has become a key partner of narcos and armed groups in Peru and Colombia. Since 2023, it has managed to best other rival criminal groups, such as Os Crías, Primeiro Comando da Capital and the Familia do Norte, and has started dominating local trafficking in Colombia’s Leticia, capital of the Amazonas department, and in the nearby Brazilian municipality of Tabatinga. Its control over the latter city, with a population of 120,000 and the largest in the three-country border region, is notorious.
