Chamber of Deputies Approves Tough Organized-Crime Bill, 370–110, Sending Text to Senate

Overview

• Lawmakers backed a Derrite-authored substitute that creates a new framework for violent criminal organizations with prison terms of 20 to 40 years, rising to up to 66 years for certain leadership roles and aggravating circumstances.
• The text tightens regime progression, classifies the new offenses as heinous crimes, authorizes early and broader confiscation of assets, and establishes interoperable national and state databases of members of so‑called ultraviolent organizations.
• A late revision clarifies that Receita Federal and the Central Bank may carry out administrative retention, seizure and destinação of illicit assets under their own rules without a specific court order, addressing a request from the Finance Ministry.
• Seized assets would flow to state security funds when investigations are led locally and to the National Public Security Fund when the Federal Police participates, a split the government says could strip roughly R$360 million from federal coffers and weaken PF funding.
• After six versions in about eleven days, the House passed the measure as President Hugo Motta blocked attempts to label factions as terrorists and maintained the voting schedule; the bill now heads to the Senate for a technical review that the government hopes will revise contested points.