William Molinié / Photo credit: JODY AMIET / AFP 6:14 a.m., March 25, 2024
The influence of Brazilian factions is growing in the French territory alone on the South American continent. These ultra-violent gangs which control international cocaine trafficking are deploying growing criminal activity in Guyana.
A scourge that undermines Guyana. The Cayenne Court of Appeal recorded 59 murders and 255 attempted homicides last year. A record which had already been broken in 2022 with 47 murders. The question of growing insecurity in this French territory, where one in two inhabitants lives below the poverty line, will be at the heart of Emmanuel Macron's trip, expected this Monday in Cayenne for a trip which should bring him from across the border, in Brazil, later this week.
At the top of crime in Guyana are the ultra-violent Brazilian gangs which dominate part of the shanty towns adjoining Cayenne. According to information from Europe 1, at least 200 Brazilian gang members have been identified in the territory by the police.
Ultraviolent gangs
According to a recent note from the judicial police that Europe 1 consulted, “Brazilian factions constitute an essential component” of Guyanese crime. Several gangs, historically formed in Brazilian prisons, operate on French soil. The most powerful, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the Familia Terror do Amapa (FTA) and the Comando Vermelho (CV).
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Cocaine trafficking, robberies, kidnappings or murders are the business of these main gangs which have established themselves sustainably in Guyana since the end of the 2010s. Certain local clans such as the B13 of Matoury or the BTR Gang, have also established themselves associated with Brazilian factions. Last year, the Cayenne gendarmes arrested 18 FTA members who had settled illegally in a coastal town and who were planning to commit armed robberies and at least one murder there.
15% Brazilian prisoners
The main point of contact between Guyanese delinquents and Brazilian gangsters is at Remire-Montjoly prison. With a thousand inmates for 600 places, the occupancy rate is 167%, one of the highest in France. In this prison, according to prison intelligence, 151 inmates are of Brazilian nationality, or nearly 15% of the total prison population. Bloody score-settling takes place there. Like in April 2020, when a member of a Brazilian faction took a prison guard hostage to gain access to another area of the establishment in order to assassinate a member of a rival gang.
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To deal with this violence behind bars, the prison administration is trying to relieve congestion in the prison by transferring inmates to mainland France. So much so that members of Brazilian factions find themselves upon their release from prison continuing their criminal activity from the mainland. Like this Guyanese implicated in a murder case targeting a drug trafficker in Tours. Last December he was identified as belonging to Comando Vermelho.