Comando Vermelho (Portuguese for Red Command) is a major Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in arms and drug trafficking. The group was formed in 1979 when a collection of ordinary convicts and left-wing political prisoners were incarcerated together during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 and formed Falange Vermelha (Red Phalanx).[1] In the early 1980s the group changed its name to the Comando Vermelho and is said to have lost its political ideology.