“Brazil’s two-year recession is largely driving this phenomenon. The city’s organized crime rings have been diversifying from drug trafficking and extortion into truck heists, according to Robert Muggah, research director for Instituto Igarape, a think tank in Rio. Why? In part because they can easily sell their purloined goods to residents struggling with more than 11 percent unemployment and 8 percent inflation.”
Source: Rio’s Drug Gangs, Squeezed by Recession, Go on Hijacking Spree – Bloomberg
