Terceiro Comando (Portuguese for ''Third Command'') is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged in drug trafficking in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. It was founded in the early 1980s and is a break-away faction of the Comando Vermelho. The ''Terceiro Comando'' has fought several small-scale conflicts (in 2001 and 2004) with the rival gang Comando Vermelho. The organization has no sole leader and is instead a horizontal reciprocity based network that helps member-gangs in different

favelas Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...

as they attempt to acquire drugs and guns.

References

Organized crime groups in Brazil 1980s establishments in Brazil {{Crime-org-stub