Three and a half months after two women from Goiás had their bags exchanged inside the international airport of Cumbica, in Guarulhos, and for that reason they were arrested with drugs in Germany, where they spent more than a month detained until it was proven that they were victims and not accomplices traffickers, the federal government launched this Wednesday, the 21st, the “Aeroportos+Seguros” program, which provides for an investment of R$ 40 million to increase security at the Guarulhos airport, which has the largest number of national and international flights in Brazil. At a later stage, other airports with a large number of international flights will also be serviced.
In this first stage there will be an increase in the number of security cameras, identification with an individual access key to the baggage system in Terminal 3 (international), restriction on access to cell phones and tablets in strategic locations, centralized entrance to the cargo terminal and biometric access for employees to restricted areas, new X-ray equipment, among other measures. Within a period of up to 18 months, Cumbica airport should receive an automated explosives detection system and improvements in the baggage transport system.
It is also planned, in the second phase of implementation of the program, three new body scanners, inspection equipment that allows observing what the person carries both under the clothes and inside the body.
The body scanner had its use intensified in Brazil in major events (Confederations Cup, World Cup and Olympics) and started to be installed in prisons as well. “The body scanner will not be part of this first investment of six months, but it is foreseen in the plan and we will do it in sequence”, said Juliano Noman, national secretary of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Ports and Airports. The program was launched in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the National Aviation Agency (Anac), the Federal Police and the Federal Revenue Service.
The program provides that security investments made by airport concessionaires are deducted from grants owed to the National Civil Aviation Fund (FNAC). According to the Ministry of Ports and Airports, once the updating of equipment within the scope of the program is justified, the participating concessionaires will be able to ask Anac to recompose the duly proven disbursements.
The Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, said that, in addition to curbing the practice of crimes such as drug trafficking, the initiative will provide a greater sense of security for passengers and airport employees. “Improving security at airports is our duty. We are co-responsible, along with the concessionaires and airlines, for the safety of people and the goods they carry when traveling through airports.”
Drug trafficking
Cumbica airport is used by drug traffickers, mainly members of the First Command of the Capital (PCC) criminal faction, to ship narcotics to Europe and Africa, as shown by Estadão in May.
The most common way is to use “mules”, as people who carry the drug in their luggage or on their own bodies are called. But, in these cases, the amount of narcotics transported is small. In order to increase this volume, the gangs began to co-opt airport employees, who use various tactics: from exchanging luggage, as in the case of the two Goiás women unfairly arrested in Germany, to hiding cocaine among blankets distributed by airlines.
Data from the Federal Police indicate that the largest airport in the country had 343 arrests for trafficking in 2022, the highest number in ten years. The amount of drugs seized reached the second highest level in the period (2,910.7 kg). And there are no signs of slowing down: from January to April of this year, a ton of narcotics was intercepted by the PF – 9% more than in the same period last year.
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