Brazilian police dismantle PCC drug gang’s cryptocurrency money laundering scheme

On August 8th, according to CoinDesk, police in São Paulo, Brazil, broke up a money laundering scheme managed by the drug gang "First Capital Command" (PCC), which operated through a company acting as a cryptocurrency exchange. According to CNN, the company's trading volume was approximately 500 million reais (89 million US dollars). During the raid, the police seized checks worth 55 million reais (8.9 million US dollars) at the company's headquarters.

The raid was carried out on Tuesday by São Paulo police following orders received. It involved 20 arrest warrants and 60 search and seizure warrants. The Brazilian court also froze assets worth over 8 billion reais (1.427 billion US dollars) belonging to those involved in the case. According to a report by The Economist, PCC is the largest gang in Latin America, with nearly 40,000 members and about 60,000 contract workers.