The United States has imposed sanctions on two Brazilian nationals and three companies, alleging their involvement with Brazil’s notorious criminal syndicate, the ‘Primeiro Comando da Capital’ (PCC). Brazil’s ruling administration under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has expressed concern over this move. The Brazilian Ministry of Justice stated that such unilateral action by Washington—deviating from standard international cooperation norms—could signal the possibility of harsher measures in the future. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US administration, under then-President Donald Trump, had previously designated this syndicate as the largest international criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere.
Globo reported this development. Although these US sanctions have no direct legal enforceability within Brazilian territory, they could expose Brazilian banks and financial institutions to the risk of US secondary sanctions. According to OFAC, the accused—Victor Henrique de Oliveira Shimada and his associate Stella Stefani Nunes—had been laundering millions of dollars in illicit proceeds from drug trafficking in Florida into Brazil via cryptocurrency. Due to their ties to this network, sanctions were also imposed on three Brazilian financial and construction firms controlled by Shimada: Victory Trading, Pixwave, and Wave Intelligent Constructions. The US administration noted that the criminal syndicate has expanded its operations beyond Florida to Britain, Turkey, and Japan, posing a significant threat to US national security.
