Overview
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the Brasil Contra o Crime Organizado program with four tracks that focus on prisons, gang finances, homicide probes, and illegal weapons.
- Justice Minister Wellington Lima detailed funding of about R$1.06 billion in direct federal resources plus a separate R$10 billion credit line run by development bank BNDES using the Fiis social infrastructure fund.
- The plan will upgrade 138 prisons to a maximum-security standard that the government says houses nearly 19% of inmates and more than 80% of gang leaders who issue orders from inside facilities.
- States can receive federal security kits without formally joining the program, including metal detectors, phone jammers, scanning tools, and other gear meant to block prison-based command and recruitment.
- Access to the R$10 billion line depends on state or municipal projects for items like vehicles, drones, radios, cameras, scanners, forensic and IT tools, and prison works, while opposition senator Flávio Bolsonaro publicly criticized the effort as late and ineffective.