Lax gun laws in Brazil and U.S. help arm Brazil’s organized crime, study finds

SAO PAULO — Gunmen in a car opened fire in November at São Paulo’s airport and killed a cryptocurrency entrepreneur in a daytime hit that was one of Brazil’s most shocking recent crimes.

Police at the scene recovered three semiautomatic rifles that are restricted for civilian use.

The case highlighted a growing trend: Restricted-use, military-style firearms are increasingly ending up in the hands of Brazilian criminal organizations, according to a study published Tuesday by the Sou da Paz Institute, a Brazilian nonprofit that tracks gun violence. Most of the guns are made in Brazil, but in second place are those that come from the United States.

The victim, Antônio Vinícius Lopes Gritzbach, had received death threats from a powerful international criminal group called First Command of the Capital after he agreed to a plea bargain to testify about his ties to the organization.

Found at the scene were a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic rifle bought by a U.S. citizen 15 years before at a gun shop in Winchester, Va., and abandoned in a backpack near São Paulo’s international airport, according to police records reviewed by the Associated Press.

The two others were Romanian-made weapons, also purchased in the United States. Authorities have not determined how the guns entered Brazil.

Researchers study cases of nearly 7,000 seized guns

The study by the Sou da Paz Institute analyzed restricted firearm seizures from 2019 to 2023 in Brazil’s southeast, the country’s largest region and home to both São Paulo’s First Command of the Capital and a group based in Rio de Janeiro called Red Command.

Researchers reviewed records of nearly 7,000 seized guns, combining data obtained through freedom-of-information requests with police records from the region’s four states. The data included seizure dates, locations, crime types and weapon details.

It showed an 11.4% increase in the seizures of restricted, military-style guns over the five-year period.

The study attributes at least part of the rise in heavy weaponry in criminal hands to looser gun regulations in Brazil under former President Jair Bolsonaro, who authorized many kinds of weapons once restricted to military and police use for civilians, including 9-millimeter pistols and some semiautomatic rifles.

The number of privately owned firearms doubled from 1.3 million at the end of 2018 to 2.9 million in 2022, according to the study. Some of these guns were diverted to the illegal market after an increase of reported stolen guns from sport shooters and collectors.

“It’s clear that weaker gun controls during the Bolsonaro administration opened a new pathway for organized crime: cheaper, with a veneer of legality and enabled by straw buyers of rifles,” said Carolina Ricardo, executive director of Sou da Paz.

In July 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree tightening restrictions on civilian access to guns, reversing the pro-firearms policies of his right-wing predecessor.

The decree restored restrictions on semiautomatic weapons, reduced the number of guns civilians can possess for personal safety from four to two and required documentation proving the need to hold the weapons. Lula also tightened weapon registration requirements.

The U.S. is a key supplier

While the majority of seized firearms were Brazil-made, U.S.-origin weapons ranked second. The U.S. was the main foreign source of both complete firearms and unmarked components feeding Brazil’s illegal market, the study showed.

Natalia Pollachi, one of the authors of the study, said there is a well-documented smuggling route from the U.S. to Brazil through Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia. The study found that not only complete firearms but also separate components for restricted-use weapons from the U.S. are illegally entering Brazil and being assembled locally.

“The United States plays a key role because parts and components are sold there with far less regulation. Police reports often show these items being smuggled into Brazil,” Pollachi said.

Ricardo said that if the U.S. government believes the growth of organized crime threatens its interests— as it has with Mexico and Canada — it must also recognize that weak gun controls in the U.S. directly fuel organized crime in Brazil.

“It’s fair for the U.S. to demand action from Brazil,” the executive director of Sou da Paz said, “but it must first admit it is part of the problem.”

Pessoa writes for the Associated Press.