In May 2026, the U.S. Department of State designated Brazil's two largest criminal factions (external link), the PCC and the Comando Vermelho (CV), as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). With the announcement of their imminent classification as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), Washington signaled an unrelenting offensive against these groups' international financing networks, criminalizing any form of “material support” under severe federal penalties.
Yet behind this national security rhetoric lies a profound trade policy contradiction: the deregulation reforms (external link) of the firearms market promoted by the U.S. administration facilitate, in an unprecedented manner, the flow of assault rifles to these factions deemed terrorists.
Firearms by mail
On the U.S. domestic front, in April 2026, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) signed off on a coordinated package of 34 regulatory reforms. The primary and most controversial measure is proposed rule number 1140-AB05, which regulates interstate commercial transactions with direct mail delivery to the buyer's home (external link).
Under the proposal, buyers can purchase firearms online and have them delivered directly to their residence, requiring only a remote identity and background check conducted entirely electronically, eliminating the requirement to appear in person at a licensed dealer.
Experts and public safety associations sharply criticize the measure, warning that it dismantles the first line of defense against trafficking: face-to-face scrutiny by licensed retailers, which is crucial for detecting suspected straw purchases.
The logistical facilitation of digital sales directly benefits large-scale online distributors such as GrabAGun, dubbed the “Amazon of guns.” Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, sits on GrabAGun's board and holds more than 300,000 shares in the company, which raised $119 million in funding upon going public through a merger.
Although those involved deny prior knowledge of the new rule, this alignment exemplifies the extreme permissiveness toward which the U.S. domestic retail market is being steered.
While easing domestic sales weakens tracking, changes to civilian exports directly impact transnational security. In September 2025, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) fully revoked (external link) the Interim Final Rule (IFR) established in May 2024.
The previous rule restricted the commercial export of civilian firearms to 36 countries classified as high-risk for the diversion of weapons to cartels and paramilitary groups, including Brazil's neighbors such as Paraguay, Suriname, Colombia, and Peru.
Claiming that such controls represented burdensome barriers costing the U.S. arms industry approximately $500 million annually, the administration eliminated the “presumption of denial” for exports to these destinations and extended the validity of civilian export licenses from one to four years.
The deregulation disregards critical reports (external link), such as the one by the Government Accountability Office(GAO), which showed that nearly 73% of firearms seized in illicit contexts in the Caribbean Basin were of U.S. origin (external link). By reopening these commercial channels in South America, the United States is reestablishing the ideal logistical infrastructure for criminal networks to funnel military arsenals into Brazil via third-party transit.
Direct repercussions in Brazil
On Brazilian soil, the operational repercussions of these logistical loopholes manifest through well-structured air and land routes.
On one hand, the state of Florida has consolidated its position as the epicenter for purchases of weapons that enter disassembled and concealed in consumer goods. In May 2026, the Federal Police and the Federal Revenue Service intercepted an AK-47 rifle shipped from Florida (external link) to Porto Alegre, concealed inside an electric oven.
In March 2023, another seizure at Viracopos Airport identified 30 rifles (external link) concealed in industrial hydraulic presses. Under the new ATF guidelines, straw purchasers will be able to disperse assault rifle purchases online without having to physically visit stores, accelerating outbound illicit flows.
On the other hand, overland triangulation routes are gaining momentum with regional regulatory rollbacks. Operation Dakovo (external link) revealed the scale of the arms market flowing across the Paraguayan border, with schemes importing European rifles with the complicity of corrupt high-ranking military officials before passing them on to PCC and CV brokers.
Likewise, Suriname serves as a strategic staging post for the Comando Vermelho in the Amazon. In June 2026, Operation Red Fox (external link) dismantled a criminal ring based in Paramaribo, in which operator Arnaldo Ribeiro coordinated transactions of AK-47 rifles for 150,000 reais each for CV leaders in Rio de Janeiro, moving more than 150 million reais through pass-through accounts and Pix transfers.
Hybrid manufacturing and domestic weapons production
However, the flow of fully assembled imported firearms is only part of the problem. The legacy of loosening firearm regulations for CACs (hunters, sport shooters, and collectors) in Brazil between 2019 and 2022 (external link) pushed the factions toward an accelerated process of hybrid manufacturing and domestic production. Under Brazil's previous administration, criminal networks co-opted citizens (external link) with clean criminal records to legally purchase heavy weapons and ammunition shielded by standard transit permits. With the subsequent tightening of regulations in 2023, factions pivoted to a sophisticated domestic factory production structure relying on imported components.
In August 2025, the Federal Police dismantled a high-precision clandestine industrial plant (external link) in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, in upstate São Paulo. Fronting as an aeronautical components company, the factory was owned by pilot Gabriel Carvalho Belchior and had the capacity to produce up to 3,500 complete AR-15-style rifles per year.
Belchior's logistics combined the best of both worlds: he maintained a rented residence in Florida where he purchased disassembled rifles, shipping critical components such as barrels and precision bolts concealed inside shipments of inflatable pools. At the factory in São Paulo state, 11 high-precision industrial CNC machines machined the hybrid rifles for the factions.
This nationalized production drastically reduces (external link) the operational costs of crime. It is estimated that the manufacturing operation run by Belchior and his associate Silas Diniz Carvalho (who ran another clandestine workshop in Belo Horizonte under the guise of a carpentry shop) supplied more than 1,000 hybrid rifles (“ghost guns”) to Rio de Janeiro factions and militias before being dismantled.
This scenario challenges law enforcement agencies' own assessments. Reports indicating an absolute predominance of U.S. weapons clash with what experts point out: without advanced metallurgical forensics, it is impossible to distinguish legitimate U.S. rifles from domestic replicas stamped with international brand markings forged on Brazilian CNC machines.
The confluence of these factors exposes a profound asymmetry in international cooperation. While Itamaraty fears that unilateral terrorist designation by the U.S. could pave the way for discretionary interventions violating national sovereignty, Washington shields U.S. gun dealers from civil liability as they continue to profit from the uncontrolled sale of rifles.
As long as the ATF’s e-commerce and mail loopholes remain open in the U.S., labeling the PCC and CV as terrorist organizations will serve eminently political purposes. While the United States government feigns to combat the arms flow fueling criminal organizations throughout Latin America, it is left to Brazil to focus on the financial monitoring of shell companies, integrated intelligence, and strict control over precision CNC machinery in the domestic market.
This article, “Paradoxo trumpista: desregulamentação das armas nos EUA abastece facções brasileiras que Washington chama de terroristas”, by Roberto Uchôa de Oliveira Santos, researcher and doctoral candidate at the Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra, was originally published in The Conversation(https://theconversation.com/paradoxo-trumpista-desregulamentacao-das-armas-nos-eua-abastece-faccoes-brasileiras-que-washington-chama-de-terroristas-287575 (external link)) and is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 4.0).