News

How America Created A Gun-Happy Gangster’s Paradise In Brazil

How America created a gun-happy gangster’s paradise in Brazil

Thousands of made-in-America weapons are pouring into Brazil and landing straight into the hands of gangsters every day, and the U.S. is failing miserably at stemming the flood.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, Brazil is home to roughly 8 million illegal weapons, more than half of which were smuggled from the U.S. The latest U.N.-sponsored report suggests that a little under 20,000 American weapons enter Brazil each year.

Rio de Janeiro, one of the most dangerous cities on the planet

In Rio de Janeiro, local authorities believe that around 4,000 new illegal weapons arrive in the city each day. About a quarter of those are assault rifles, according to Christiano, a high-ranking Military Police commander in Rio de Janeiro who oversees operations to capture illegal guns off the streets.

“Once these weapons cross our national borders, we almost have no way to capture these guns before they end up in the wrong people’s hands,” Christiano said.

The consequences of this crisis are severe. In Rio de Janeiro, one of the most dangerous cities on the planet, murder rates have been skyrocketing, from 925 in 2016 to 1,814 in 2019, the AP reported. The majority of those murders involve the use of smuggled firearms. In fact, corruption is so rampant in the city that gangs are able to buy off workers in order to let their cargo enter Brazil easily. Once these weapons are unloaded, they are funneled through the country to other gang-controlled areas, mostly in São Paulo, Fortaleza, and the state of Amazonia, Christiano explained.

How illicit weapons trade functions

In order to understand how the illicit weapons trade functions, one has to see it as a global business with many different actors and consumers, spreading its tentacles from various points of origins, mostly within our borders to their final destination in Mexico, Paraguay, and Brazil. Arms dealers will go to great lengths to protect their macabre business, securing trade routes often stretching from one continent to the next, creating constant flows of weapons and ammunition to our Southern neighbors.

Two main trade routes exist today. Both originate from America’ southern states, which produce a staggering amount of firearms each year. Today, roughly 393 million guns are held within U.S. borders. The ATF, on the other hand, has little idea how many of these weapons leave American shores to be resold illegally to Mexico, Central America, and South America. In fact, the ATF “does not maintain a federal gun registry, therefore, records are not kept on the sales of firearms, private sales or individual purchasers,” a spokesperson told ABC News.

Criminal Brazilians with US passports

In March 2019, HSI was tipped off by their Brazilian counterparts about a weapon-smuggling ring that was exporting assault rifles and ammo to São Paulo from the United States. So alarming was the efficiency of the arrival of these weapons into the hands of various gangs like Comando Vermelho (Red Command), or Amigos dos Amigos, that the Brazilian government coordinated its efforts with the DEA. As a result, key members of a major criminal organization were arrested, all Brazilians holding U.S. passports.

The ex-ATF agent, Anarumo, explained that a strategy similar to Barbieri’s is employed by cartels and gangs from Mexico to Brazil.

It’s simple. First, the criminal organization will contact their associates already in the U.S., holding American passports. Once they receive their orders, the stringers will go to Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas, where it’s easy to buy handguns and assault rifles. Once the purchase is made at local stores, some of these weapons will be dismantled, hidden away in creative containers like refrigerator filters, and driven to Miami. Then, once these weapons are loaded in containers and onto ships, some go straight to South America, while a small minority are directed towards Haiti and the Dominican Republic to supply gangs operating on Hispaniola, which has become a major hub for illicit drugs and weapons smuggling.

News

Tinubu approves ban on homosexuality in Nigeria’s military

Nigeria’s military personnel have been banned from engaging in homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, cross-dressing, and other acts deemed contrary to the ethics of the country’s armed forces.

The nation’s military personnel were also barred from body piercing, tattooing, disorderly behaviour and drunkenness on or off duty.

The fresh directive is contained in Section 26 of the revised Harmonised Armed Forces Terms and Conditions of Service signed by President Bola Tinubu on December 16, 2024, a copy sighted by DAILY POST’S correspondent at the weekend.

Also, the condition of service prohibited military personnel from joining secret cults and owning private businesses.

“An officer must not engage in homosexuality, lesbianism, or bestiality.

“He/she is not to belong to or engage in activities of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Trans, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual or Agender, Two-Spirit, LGBTQIA2S+, group and cross-dressing, amongst others.
“An officer must not engage in body piercing and tattooing of any part of his body. An officer shall not engage in any form of disorderly behaviour, brawl, or any action of public disgrace. An officer must not at any time be drunk, whether on or off duty.”

The condition of service also forbids the involvement of officers in amorous relationships with subordinates or their spouses.

The military personnel are obligated to pay financial dues, including vehicle licenses and insurance, on time, while they are prohibited from joining secret societies or political parties.

“An officer shall pay all just financial obligations in a proper and timely manner, especially those imposed by law and mutual contract. It is a very serious offence for an officer to be apprehended for failure to license or insure his vehicle and other legal financial obligations. In the same vein, the issuance of a dud cheque constitutes an offence.

“An officer shall not hold membership in any secret society or political party. He shall not participate, in any way, in activities concerned with such societies or parties, even in observatory capacities.

“For the avoidance of doubt, since cultural or purely traditional religious societies are not normally secret by membership or in the conduct of their affairs, they are ipso facto expelled from belonging to secret societies.”

“An officer shall not engage in private business. He shall not use or be allowed to use government property, his name, position, and connection in any way with commercial enterprises outside employment or activity with or without compensation, which interfere or has the tendency of interfering with his official duty or which may be reasonably expected to bring discredit to the Service,” the document stated.
Meanwhile, the document did not spell out punishments or disciplinary measures against any personnel who violates the rules.

News

Kano Emirship tussle: Bayero rejects Appeal Court judgement, heads for Supreme Court

Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero has rejected the judgement of the Appeal Court which nullified a Federal High Court order that removed Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.

Bayero on Sunday said he is heading to Supreme Court to challenge the appeal court verdict.

Speaking to newsmen at the Nasarawa Palace of the 15th Emir Of Kano, the Sarkin Dawaki Babba, Aminu Babba DanAgundi, who filed the suit that was struck out by the Appeal Court, said, “Sanusi did not even understand that he has completely lost out in the whole of the cases at hand.

“That is why I expressed regrets over remarks by the 16th Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II, using the Mosque pillar to propagate something that was not true and did not happen at the Appeal Court.

“We initially went to Federal High Court seeking the nullification of the repeal law by the State Assembly, which we felt was done haphazardly.”

DanAgundi further warned Sanusi to stop parading himself as the Emir of Kano.

“The position of Muhammadu Sanusi II that he emerged victorious was wrong, the court said that the Federal High Court has no legal right to hear issues with regards to chieftaincy affairs. But what we went to court for was different.

“We were not arguing on the powers of State Assembly to enact of repeal laws, what we were asking was lack of fair hearing on the 15th Emir Aminu Ado Bayero, that he was removed without given him chance to protect himself.

“The State Assembly didn’t follow the right procedures in repealing the laws,” he added.

He asked the Police and the DSS to stop Sanusi from allegedly moving around with thugs, accusing the Emir of plotting to disrupt peace in Kano.

According to him, Sanusi will not claim victory until the Supreme Court judgement has been given.

“The Attorney General and Speaker of the Kano State Assembly went to court seeking to stop Bayero from parading himself as Emir, but the Appeal Court rejected that position and said that Bayero was not given fair hearing.

“By this it clearly shows that Bayero is still the Emir of Kano.”

News

6.2 Magnitude Quake Strikes Mexico

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rattled a region of southwest Mexico on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The tremor was centered eight kilometers (five miles) from Coalcoman de Vazquez Pallares, a municipality of around 20,000 people which is about 600 kilometers west of the capital Mexcio City.

The quake struck at a depth of 86.2 kilometers.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on social media platform X that the national emergency services had reported “there are no new developments and are initiating review protocols” in Coalcoman.

Mexico lies on five tectonic plates that make it one of the world’s most earthquake vulnerable countries, particularly on the Pacific coast.

In 1985 an 8.1 magnitude quake centered on the Pacific coast ravaged much of central and southern Mexico, killing thousands and causing severe damage in Mexico City.

A 7.1-magnitude quake on September 19, 2017 killed 369 people, most of them in the capital.

On the same day in 2022 central Mexico was hit by another quake, just hours after millions of people had taken part in a mock earthquake safety exercise.

AFP