A top Brazilian drug cartel has threatened to attack next summer’s World Cup soccer games, the Brazilian newspaper Estadao reported.

 

According to Fox News Latino, Estadao reported that members of the First Capital Command (PCC) gang were overheard on wiretaps threatening a “World Cup of Terror” if the government attempted to transfer some of its members to prisons spread across Brazil.

 

The threats by members of the PCC — which operates within Brazilian prisons — are being taken seriously by authorities, who are battling the .group on the streets of Brazil’s major cities. Last year, the gang killed 106 members of Brazil’s Military Police.

 

But law enforcement officials say the threat is highly unlikely to affect the World Cup games, and that gangster bluster should not stop people from visiting Brazil.

 

“It is a group that should be taken seriously and being fought like any criminal organization,” Sao Paulo’s public security office said. “However, the information gathered so far by intelligence services does not point to any indication that any attack will occur. This is not the time to generate alarmism.”

 

At the same time, however, the city’s police chief has asked his officers to take extra precautions when traveling home and parking their vehicles.

 

According to Britain’s Mirror newspaper, the PCC is just one of the dangers U.K. soccer fans will face if they travel to Brazil next year to attend the World Cup. “Even without the threat from the gangs, violence is an everyday occurrence in the country,” with the murder rate having tripled during the past 30 years, the paper added.

 

Related Story: