Attacks and extortion of internet service providers by Brazilian gangs is becoming increasingly common in states in the north and northeast, suggesting organized crime groups are driving legitimate providers out to expand their provision of illegal internet services in new regions.
The northeastern state of Ceará registered at least 13 attacks against legal internet suppliers over a span of six weeks between February and March, according to local media reports, which caused blackouts in various cities. In Caridade, one of the most affected municipalities, around 90% of the city’s internet users were left without internet for weeks following the attack.
In the north, extortion cases in the state of Pará have also grown in recent years. In October 2022, a state police investigation targeted a gang that allegedly charged between 5,000 and 10,000 reais (between about $800 and $1,700) in exchange for allowing internet providers to operate in some neighborhoods. And earlier this year, the car of an internet company was set on fire by gangs in Belém, the capital city.
By extorting legal providers and expelling them from communities, crime groups are able to pirate their services and start their own illegal structures. Gangs extort, threaten, and attack internet suppliers’ vehicles and stores to force them to cooperate, or take advantage of corruption among legal providers, who agree to collaborate with these groups.
InSight Crime Analysis
Fueled by the exchange of strategies and know-how by gang members within Brazil’s prison system, internet extortion techniques are spreading to other regions after first taking off in Rio de Janeiro.
Extortion has been central to Rio de Janeiro’s criminal dynamics since militias and the Red Command (Comando Vermelho – CV) began to seize territorial control in the 1990s. With the rise of technology, gangs expanded extortion to internet service providers in the 2010s amid a further diversification of their criminal portfolios.
“These companies cross different gangs’ territories and sign agreements with local trafficking networks or militias,” Carolina Grillo, coordinator of the New Illegallisms Study Group (Grupo de Estudos dos Novos Ilegalismos – GENI) in Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (Universidade Federal Fluminense – UFF), told InSight Crime.
Over the years, internet extortion has emerged as one of the most lucrative businesses for organized crime. In Rio de Janeiro, police have opened over 120 investigations against internet extortion since 2024.
While most of the current internet extortion cases in Rio de Janeiro seem to be linked to the Red Command and the Pure Third Command (Terceiro Comando Puro – TCP), gangs in other parts of the country, especially Ceará and Pará, have been replicating their internet extortion methods.
This stems in part from the fact that criminals from different states and gangs commingle in overpopulated penitentiaries, where they share knowledge about criminal procedures and learn how to apply them to different realities.
“Federal prisons have been decisive to the expansion of gangs across Brazil, and as gang members establish personal ties, they export part of their techniques,” Grillo told InSight Crime.
This is aided by the fact that the governmental agencies responsible for prosecuting internet-related crimes lack operational support, undermining enforcement. Corrupt police have also been found collaborating with criminal groups instead of tackling this type of extortion.
“The responsible regulatory agencies do not provide effective enforcement because they depend on police support. But the police are often part of corrupt arrangements, so there is a struggle in regulating these markets,” said Grillo.
