Brazil Enacts Toughest Anti-Gang Law in Its History

The Brazil organized crime law that spent months dividing Congress is now enacted. President Lula signed the Anti-Faction Law on Tuesday, turning one of the most contentious security bills of his presidency into the country’s most sweeping legal framework against criminal organizations. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, explains what survived and what Lula struck down.

The legislation, formally named the “Lei Raul Jungmann,” was first sent to Congress in November 2025 and underwent extensive rewriting before the lower house approved a final version in late February. Lula signed it with two vetoes, preserving the law’s core architecture.

What the Brazil Organized Crime Law Does

The law defines a criminal faction as any group of three or more people that uses violence, threats, or coercion to control territory, intimidate populations, or attack essential infrastructure. It creates two new crimes classified as heinous offenses: “structured social domination,” carrying 20 to 40 years of imprisonment, and aiding such domination, carrying 12 to 20 years.

Convicted faction leaders lose access to amnesty, bail, parole, and most forms of sentence reduction. In some cases, inmates must serve up to 85% of their sentence in a closed regime before progression. Leaders must be held in maximum-security facilities to limit their ability to direct operations from behind bars.

The law also expands asset seizure powers. Authorities can confiscate property, digital assets, and corporate stakes linked to criminal activity through civil proceedings, even without a final criminal conviction. A new National Database of Criminal Organizations will coordinate intelligence sharing among agencies.

Two Strategic Vetoes on Brazil Organized Crime Law

Lula blocked a provision that would have allowed the law’s severe penalties to be applied to individuals without proven membership in a criminal organization. National Security Secretary Chico Lucas said the veto prevented a “paradox” in a law designed specifically for organized groups, and was intended to prevent the potential criminalization of social movements.

The second veto struck down a provision that would have sent seized assets to state security funds. Officials called it unconstitutional, arguing it would reduce federal revenue without a required budget impact assessment. Seized proceeds will continue flowing exclusively to the National Public Security Fund.

A Contested Provision Lula Kept

The president chose not to veto a politically sensitive clause stripping prison welfare benefits from families of convicted faction members. The benefit, currently set at one minimum wage — R$1,621 ($310) per month — will remain available in all other cases but is now barred for dependents of people convicted under the new law. Lula defended the measure directly, saying those who choose crime must understand their families will bear consequences.

He also kept a provision altering the Electoral Code to bar pretrial detainees from voting. The government calculated that vetoing this clause would invite a politically costly congressional override, making it better to let courts decide its constitutionality later.

What Comes Next

The law requires implementing regulations to be issued by decree in the coming weeks. Congress retains the right to override either veto, and legal challenges to the voting-rights provision and the welfare ban are widely expected from civil liberties groups.

Whether the framework delivers results depends on execution. Crime and corruption dominate voter concerns heading into October’s presidential election, and Brazilian criminal organizations generate an estimated R$147 billion ($28 billion) annually from illicit supply chains. The law gives the state powerful new tools to pursue that money, but turning legal authority into dismantled networks will require sustained coordination in a country where security policy has historically been driven by electoral cycles rather than institutional strategy.

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