Drug probe recommends hundreds indicted in Brazil

A landmark Brazilian congressional commission probing the drug trade approved its final report on December 6, recommending that 827 people, including politicians, businessmen and former judges and police officials, be indicted.

The final report was approved in the early hours after an eight-hour parliamentary session. The commission lashed out at organized crime, including recommending investigations into banks that did not cooperate with its probe. But it could take months, if not years, for the panels sweeping allegations to bear any fruit.

The 18-member panel, dubbed the "untouchables" after the U.S. crime fighters who caught 1920s-era Chicago gangster Al Capone, has heard the testimony of 450 people. Under heavy security, including a metal detector at the door to its chamber in Congress, the panel has worked for 14 months led by an evangelical priest. 

"We were always under pressure, because we were dealing with the kingpins of organized crime," said lawmaker Moroni Torgan, who was in charge of the final report. 

The report recommended indicting three members of the national Congress, several state lawmakers, lawyers, former judges and former police officials and a handful of mayors who were elected in October local elections. 

The sweeping list did not stop at Brazil. It also lashed out at regional strongmen like Surinames former dictator Desi Bouterse, Surinames current ambassador to Brazil and Paraguays failed coup leader Lino Oviedo. 

Oviedo is currently in prison in Brazil, awaiting extradition to Paraguay. 

The probe unearthed a network of organized criminals who use Brazil as a transit point for drug trafficking from neighboring Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, to Europe and the United States. 

Brazil, South Americas largest country, is not a major drug producer, but the report attempted to find the drug barons in charge of satisfying the demand for drugs in Brazils sprawling, violence-ridden urban slums. It also estimated that US$50 billion of drug-related money is laundered in Brazil every year.

Prosecutions 

The recommendations will now be sent to the public prosecutors office, which will have to open investigations to follow up on the report. 

"It will now basically depend on public prosecutors what they will do with this substantial report," said Paulo Silveira, a spokesman for the commission. 

The challenges to bringing anyone to justice are large. For one, the three federal lawmakers pinpointed in the report have parliamentary immunity from criminal investigations.

"This is absurd, I am going to the courts," said Augusto Farias, a deputy in the lower chamber, after hearing that he was accused of involvement in organized crime.

A similar congressional inquiry created in 1991 finished its report in 1996. The report was shelved. 

But the current commission, which was established in April 1999, can celebrate one memorable victory. In September 1999, a federal lawmaker, Hildebrando Pascual, lost his immunity and was arrested, partly due to the commissions probe.

Allegedly, Pascual led a death squad in the jungle state of Acre, had ties with organized crime and was involved in drug trafficking. In the most shocking report, Pascual was accused of cutting off a victim's limbs with a chain saw.