Lula unveils plan against organized crime in Brazil five months before elections

Brazilian President Lula da Silva on Tuesday launched a program to combat organized crime, days after addressing the issue in a meeting in Washington with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, and five months before seeking reelection.

Lula said the initiative would end criminal control over territories. Lula's new plan aims to focus on financially strangling criminal factions, disrupting money laundering and cracking down on illicit markets that supply these groups, such as arms trafficking.

He said the government had earmarked about $200 million in direct funding for these efforts in 2026, and $2 billion to equip security forces with specialised equipment, such as drones, armored vehicles, signal jammers and forensic equipment.