Brazil signed an international cooperation agreement with Italy to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, said the minister participated in the II International Sphere Forum in Rome, this Friday (11).
The agreement will be signed at the G20 Leaders Summit, in November, in Rio de Janeiro. The agreement provides for permanent exchanges of information between Brazilian and Italian security forces to combat organized crime.
The minister met with Italy’s Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Attorney General, Giovanni Melillo, last Thursday (10), to talk about the need for police and judicial cooperation in combating organized crime.
“Yesterday, the Antimafia Attorney General said that Italy wanted to learn the modus operandi, how Brazilian criminal organizations operate. We already know how the mafia operates in Italy. They are different forms of action. We want to exchange information about this”, the Brazilian minister told journalists.
Lewandowski also met with Italy’s Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, to talk about legal cooperation between the two countries in the civil and criminal areas. The authorities also spoke about the complexity of issues related to artificial intelligence, the protection of human rights and the potential that new technologies offer for innovation and the socioeconomic development of nations.
“We are learning how they deal with organized crime, which is a multinational, global phenomenon that concerns the entire world and cannot be fought in isolation. (…) There needs to be international collaboration”, he stated.
The minister stated that the federal government is also working to prevent illicit resources from organized crime from being transferred to legal activities, with support from the Financial Activities Control Council and the Brazilian Federation of Banks. Lewandowski also said that organized crime is using the betting phenomenon to launder money.
“(Fernando) Haddad, from the Treasury’s point of view, said that he was eliminating more than a thousand companies that were operating illegally in this betting market. There will be very few, only those whose owners are identified, with CPF, CNPJ, with resources clearly explained. The Federal Police is acting to prevent organized crime from taking over this sector,” he said.
