Police Raid Targeting Drug Traffickers in Rio de Janeiro Slum Results in One of the City’s Deadliest Police Operations Ever

Blood covers the floor of a home during a police operation targeting drug traffickers in the Jacarezinho favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, May 6, 2021. At least 25 people died including one police officer and 24 suspects, according to the press office of Rio’s civil police. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police targeting drug traffickers from one of Brazil’s most notorious criminal organizations, Comando Vermelho, engaged in hours-long gunbattle in a Rio de Janeiro slum successfully eliminating two dozen criminals.

The police stormed Jacarezinho, a favela in the city’s northern zone. When it was all over, 25 were confirmed dead: 1 police officer and 24 ‘criminals’. This is seen as one of the city’s deadliest police operations in its history.

Gov. Cláudio Castro’s office said in an emailed statement that it lamented the deaths, but that the operation was “oriented by long and detailed investigative and intelligence work that took months.”

— BCNN1