Brazilian Amazon at risk of being taken over by mafia, ex-police chief warns

Alexandre Saraiva gives alert on organised crime in region ahead of anniversary of killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno PereiraThe rapid advance of organised crime groups in the Brazilian Amazon risks turning the region into a vast, conflict-stricken hinterland plagued by heavily armed "criminal insurgents", a former senior federal police chief has warned.Alexandre Saraiva, who worked in the Amazon from 2011 to 2021, said he feared the growing footprint of drug-trafficking mafias in the region could spawn a situation similar to the decades-long drug conflict in Rio de Janeiro, where the police's battle with drug gangs and paramilitaries has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Continue reading...