Although most Brazilian law enforcement agencies have for long been limited – mostly, forced by legal restraints – to acquiring service guns in the local market (e.g. Taurus, IMBEL, CBC), this trend is now gradually changing. To set the record straight, it should be recalled that the Departamento de Polícia Federal (Federal Police Department) and the Polícia Rodoviaria Federal (Federal Highway Police) have for some time seen more independence in this area with the procurement of foreign-made weapons, the same applying to a few other state agencies in search of specific items not available locally. Such was the case of the recent acquisition of 5,000 .40 S&W Gen5 Glock 22 pistols by PMESP – Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Military Police), and the use of 9x19mm Glock 19s and 7.62x51mm Armalite AR-10A4 rifles by Rio’s Military and Civil Police forces, as examples.

Earlier this month, the PCCE – Polícia Civil do Estado do Ceará (Ceará State Civil Police) publicly displayed the first batch of imported weapons arrived to equip its agents, at the same time that it was announced that additional guns will be delivered by December 2018, for use by the same state’s Military Police. The just-arrived material consisted of 3,140 .40 S&W SIG Sauer P320 pistols, 150 5.56x45mm Radical Firearms RF-15 rifles, and five 7.62x51mm Armalite AR-10 SuperSASS rifles.

The 14-round P320 pistol by SIG Sauer has made its service introduction in Brazil via the recent deliveries to Ceará State’s Civil Police (PCCE), but will also be supplied to its Military Police(PMCE) counterpart.

Detail of the slide markings on a PCCE pistol. It may be noticed that the acquired weapons are of the full-size (4.7” barrel) P320 model.

The first batch of weapons received by PCCE included five  Armalite AR-10 SuperSASS precision rifles. The scope fitted to guns is a Nightforce NXS,

(Image credit: Paulo Bedran)

Although AR-15s, M4s, and other AR platforms are somewhat commonplace in the Brazilian LE scenario, the 5.56x45mm Radical Firearms RF-15 is a newcomer. Stock fitted is the Minimalist Mil-Spec, while the magazines are polymer Magpul units. (Image credit:  Paulo Bedran)

For comparative purposes, here’s a PCCE RF-15 photographed beside a Bushmaster XM-15 from the Brazilian Federal Police inventory. Both feature 16″ barrels. (Image credit: Paulo Bedran)

STOP PRESS: TFB has just learned that Rock River Arms has been chosen by Brazil’s Acre state to supply an undisclosed number of 5.56x45mm LAR-15 rifles for its police forces.

Higher-res pix: https://imgur.com/a/UJ9gIDO