At least 13 people, including a drug trafficking gang leader from northern Brazil, were killed on Thursday March 23 during a police operation in a favela near Rio de Janeiro, authorities said.
"There are 13 dead, two people arrested and a large amount of weapons seized," Fabricio Oliveira, a Rio de Janeiro police spokesman, said at a press conference. The operation in the Salgueiro complex, located in Sao Gonçalo, a poor suburb of Rio, aimed to capture "members of the Comando Vermelho of the State of Para (north) who had taken refuge there", announced the police earlier in a statement.
“It was very violent on their part,” Mr. Oliveira said of what he describes as a “gang that uses military and guerrilla tactics.” During the intense firefight, two women were injured but are "out of danger", the police spokesman added.
Shortly before nightfall, the operation is still in progress, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse, the police forces are deployed at the entrance to the favela. The Comando Vermelho is one of the main criminal organizations in Brazil, very active in drug trafficking.
"Deadly Disaster"
Among the deceased is "Leonardo Araujo, known by the code name of L41, wanted by the police", "main leader of the largest criminal organization operating in Para", said on Twitter the governor of this northern state, Helder Barbalho. According to the police, the organization he led "is primarily responsible for the deaths of 40 police officers since 2021" in the Para.
This police operation also targeted other gang leaders "involved in recent attacks in favelas in the western zone of Rio", where vehicles were set on fire on Wednesday, police said.
Amnesty International Brazil criticized the Rio de Janeiro state government for the operation, which ended in "a deadly disaster". “Until when will the population of the outskirts, favelas and black people have to support the war policy led by the police of Rio? “, asked the NGO in a tweet. In 2021, 1,356 people were killed by police forces in the state of Rio alone, according to the Violence Monitor Project.
For his part, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, indicated on Twitter that "two criminal gang leaders in the states of Sergipe (northeast) and Para had been captured". Claudio Castro thus reported a second police operation, carried out Thursday in the Maré complex, in the north of Rio, which made it possible to arrest the leader of drug trafficking in Sergipe.
