The Senate approved Wednesday evening, by 64 votes to 0, the project known as the Anti-Faction Law, which establishes a new legal framework to fight organized crime in the country. The proposal strengthens sanctions, redefines legal concepts, modifies investigation mechanisms and creates a contribution on transfers to betting houses, Cide-Bets, which can generate up to 30 billion reais per year to finance public security operations and the prison system. The approved text having undergone modifications, it will return to the Chamber of Deputies.
Reported by Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE), the project updates the law on criminal organizations and consolidates the provisions of criminal and procedural legislation. The text was approved with the support of the government base and the opposition, after adjustments made by the rapporteur to respond to criticism from the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Police on the model initially approved by the deputies.
Cide-Bets will focus on money transfers from punters to betting platforms, at a rate of 15%. At least 60% of the collection will be carried out in a decentralized manner, via state public security funds. Vieira included the states, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary in the management council that will manage the resources and maintained the Special Action Groups to Combat Organized Crime (Gaecos) as direct beneficiaries.
The text also creates a single regularization declaration for betting operators who have acted without authorization, allowing them to pay federal taxes over the last five years according to specific rules, with severe sanctions in the event of omission.
On the criminal axis, the draft creates the criminal type of criminal faction, defined as an organization that exercises territorial control or acts between states using violence or intimidation, and equates militias with factions for all legal purposes. The integration, financing, promotion or creation of these organizations will incur a sentence of 15 to 30 years, doubled for those who exercise command, which can increase the sentences up to 60 years. The text provides for aggravating circumstances which, added together, can lead to abstract sentences exceeding 100 years, even if the limit for respecting them remains set at 40 years.
The proposal incorporates new aggravating circumstances, such as the use of explosives, obstruction of ports, airports, highways and railways, and increases penalties for injuries or deaths involving members of the armed forces. There are also new specific crimes, such as reception linked to organized crime and recruitment of children and adolescents, with sentences ranging from five to 30 years, depending on the outcome. Those convicted of crimes under the Criminal Organizations Act will also lose the right to conjugal visits.
The project expands the investigative tools for the police and the public prosecutor, establishing direct access to databases, stricter criteria for the continuation of investigations and maximum deadlines for the judicial analysis of requests. Telephone and message interceptions may be granted for a maximum period of five days, renewable, and, in cases of imminent risk to life, location data and financial transactions may be accessed without prior authorization from the Court. The text allows whistleblowers to act as infiltrators in investigations and strengthens the protection mechanisms for agents.
In the prison system, people convicted of heinous crimes will have to serve at least 70% of their sentence in a closed regime. For faction members, militia members and members of criminal organizations, this percentage rises to 75%, and can reach 85% for repeat offenders. Faction and militia leaders must serve their sentences in maximum security federal prisons. The text also allows the emergency transfer of prisoners in the event of a risk of mutiny or a threat to the integrity of civil servants.
The Anti-Faction Act also creates a national database of individuals and entities linked to criminal organizations and determines which states replicate this structure. It also formalizes the actions of the integrated forces to fight organized crime, based on the model of the Integrated Forces to Fight Organized Crime (Ficcos), with the participation of the police, the public prosecutor, Abin, the Coaf, the Federal Revenue and the Central Bank.
Another relevant front is the fight against the economic infrastructure of crime. The project provides for the blocking of accounts and assets of irregular operators, the possibility of judicial intervention in companies that support criminal groups and mechanisms for kidnapping and confiscation of assets during the investigation. There are also stricter rules for the fuel sector, requiring petrol stations to automatically send sales data to the ANP, in order to curb criminal infiltration in the sector.
Throughout the debates in the Senate, Vieira reviewed the measures approved by the House, such as the attempt to eliminate the jury trial for crimes committed by factions, and proposed, instead, strengthening the protection of jurors, with the possibility of videoconferencing for the accused and transferring trials to larger cities in case of risk.
Approved unanimously in the Senate, the text now returns to the House, where it will be analyzed again before going to presidential approval.
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