Terceiro Comando

{{Short description|Brazilian criminal organization}}

{{Infobox Criminal organization

|name = Terceiro Comando

|image =

|image_size =

|caption =

|founded = early 1980s

|founding_location = Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

|founders = Pianinho and Adilson Balbino

|years_active = early 1980s-2006

|territory =

|ethnicity =

|membership = drug trafficking, arms trade, and bank robberyUppsala Conflict Data Program Conflict Encyclopedia, [http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=22®ionSelect=5-Southern_Americas Brazil], non-state conflict, Comando Vermelho - Terceiro Comando, Actor Information

|allies =

|rivals = Comando Vermelho

}}

Terceiro Comando (Portuguese for Third Command) was a Brazilian criminal organization engaged in drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro. It was founded in the early 1980s and is a break-away faction of the Comando Vermelho.{{cite web|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/especial/2004/traficonorio/faccoes.shtml|title=Facções|date=April 15, 2011|access-date=September 23, 2011|language=pt}}

The Terceiro Comando has fought several small-scale conflicts (in 2001 and 2004) with the rival gang Comando Vermelho.

The organization has no sole leader and is instead a horizontal reciprocity based network that helps member-gangs in different favelas as they attempt to acquire drugs and guns.