Brazil's COAF Opens Rio Office to Boost Fight Against Organized Crime

The Conselho de Controle de Atividades Financeiras (COAF) inaugurated a new office in Rio de Janeiro on 3 July, dedicating it to monitoring and disrupting organized crime groups. The expansion follows the opening of a São Paulo office a few days earlier and precedes the planned launch of a third office in Foz do Iguaçu later this month. COAF President Ricardo Saadi highlighted Rio, São Paulo and Foz do Iguaçu as strategic hubs for financial surveillance, citing the city’s economic weight and crime‑related challenges. The Rio unit will be led by former Federal Police superintendent Tácio Muzzi and operates with support from the Ministry of Justice, aligning with the government’s “Brazil Against Organized Crime” program.

COAF processes around 7.5 million suspicious activity reports annually—about 30 thousand each day—and is developing a new data‑analysis system with public‑private partners to improve the handling of those notifications.