Primeiro Comando da Capital
The Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC; lit. 'First Command of the Capital'), is a Brazilian criminal organization. According to a 2023 The Economist report, the PCC is Latin America's biggest drug gang, with a membership of 40,000 lifetime members plus 60,000 "contractors". Its name refers to the São Paulo state capital, the city of São Paulo.
The group is primarily based in the state of São Paulo, although it is active throughout the rest of Brazil, South America, West Africa and Europe. An international expansion fueled by the cocaine trade made the PCC establish a profitable partnership with other international criminal organizations, such as the Italian 'Ndrangheta, the Chinese Triads and Hezbollah. As of 2023, the group runs over 50% of Brazil's drug exports to Europe. Through the cocaine trade routes to Europe, the PCC also established itself as a central player in the West African cocaine trade, with its members being able to exert control over neighbourhoods in cities such as Lagos and Abuja. According to a leaked Portuguese intelligence report, the group has around 1,000 associates in Lisbon, while it may have as many as 2,000 more members spread through the rest of the world.
Historically, the PCC has been responsible for several criminal activities such as drugs and arms trafficking, smuggling, murders, prison riots, bank robberies, protection rackets, pimping, kidnappings-for-ransom, money laundering, bribery, loan sharking and illegal gambling, with an expansion focused on drug trafficking since the 2010s. As of 2023, the PCC is currently transitioning into a global mafia, being able to influence politics and penetrate the legal economy. According to São Paulo state authorities, the group has had a yearly revenue of at least R$4.9 billion (US$909.09 million) since 2020. In August 2025, the Brazilian Federal Revenue revealed that the organization controlled at least R$30 billion (US$5.57 billion) in property investments.
The PCC is often mentioned to have a different doctrine to other Brazilian cartels, with a business model that favors the quiet expansion of markets over violent and expensive turf wars and confrontations with the state that would draw unwanted attention. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime noted that the PCC's ability to negotiate with rivals rather than expelling them has permitted the group to make use of preestablished criminal networks and preexisting logistics know-how along the cocaine value chain, encouraging peaceful cooperation between different groups and producing greater economic efficiency by reducing operating costs. However, the group has been responsible for waves of extreme violence, including targeted political violence and Narcoterrorism, upon having their interests threatened.