Brazil’s Red Command gang created its own Uber-style ride-hailing app, showing how Brazilian gangs are combining real-world territorial control and increasing technological sophistication to generate new revenue streams.
The Red Command (Comando Vermelho – CV) managed its app, called Rotax Mobili, together with an allied criminal group, Amigos dos Amigos. The app’s slogan promised that it was “the only car and motorcycle app that gets past the barricade,” referring to the physical barriers created by gangs to manage access to the neighborhoods they control.
The Red Command reportedly outsourced the development of the app to programmers with no affiliation to the group, but the gang itself was responsible for monitoring and controlling drivers through threats and extortion, as well as managing the profits.
Operating mainly in Villa Kennedy, a neighborhood that the Red Command controls, criminals received a fixed amount plus 20-30% of drivers’ profits from rides. The Red Command used the app’s profits to finance drug trafficking activities and used front companies to cover their tracks.
To make Rotax Mobili the exclusive riding app for the communities under the group’s control, the Red Command banned the use of legitimate platforms such as Uber and the Brazilian app 99. The gang reportedly coerced over 300 drivers into joining its platform.
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Rotax Mobili was operational for three months and generated a profit of around 1 million reais (nearly $185,000) per month for the gang, according to Alexandre Netto, a police chief operating in western Rio.
Rio de Janeiro’s police took down Rotax Mobili in August in an operation called Shadow Route (Rota das Sombras), arresting at least five people, seizing a car and around 300,000 reais (over $55,000) in cash, and banning the platform from app stores.
The move foiled Red Command’s plans to expand the app’s operation to other parts of western Rio — including territories controlled by the Amigos dos Amigos — and to Rocinha, Brazil’s biggest favela.
InSight Crime Analysis
The Red Command’s ride-hailing app shows how Brazilian organized crime is using technology to boost profits by leveraging its hold on certain physical spaces.
Gangs already use barricades to control who is allowed into certain neighborhoods, so it is a logical next step for them to charge for that access. Using technology makes implementing and tracking the scheme even easier.
SEE ALSO: Brazil’s Gangs Expand Their Control Over Internet Services
“The novelty of the app is simply that it is an app, because this logic of operating based on the need for mobility services within favelas has existed for a long time,” Carlos Nhanga, regional coordinator at the Fogo Cruzado Institute in Rio de Janeiro, told InSight Crime.
Rotax Mobili reflects a broader trend of Brazilian organized crime increasingly integrating technology into its pursuit of profit and power.
Organized crime “has innovated and become more sophisticated, while the state has lagged behind in combating these organizations,” Nhanga said.
Featured image: Graffiti with instructions for drivers in Barra Mansa, Brazil. Credit: Gabriel de Paiva.