Heavily armed operatives 'conquered' Complexo do Alemao in explosive confrontations that left at least 50 dead
More than two thousand heavily armed police operatives swept into Rio's most notorious shantytown today following a week of explosive confrontations that have left at least 50 people dead.
The operation, unprecedented in the city's history, began at around 8am and focused on the Complexo do Alemao, a gigantic network of slums that is the HQ of Rio's Red Command drug faction and houses around 70,000 impoverished residents.
According to police the favela had been "conquered" by around 9.30am, with drug traffickers offering little resistance.
Gang members reportedly attempted to flee the 2,600 police and army operatives through the favela's sewage system or by disguising themselves as Bible-carrying evangelical preachers.
They left behind "mansions" filled with wide-screen televisions, swimming pools and a sauna. In the home of Pezao, one of the area's top traffickers, police found a giant poster of the Canadian singer Justin Bieber.
Around 10 tonnes of marijuana were seized along with a small arsenal of assault rifles and a missile. At least three suspected drug traffickers died in confrontations with police operatives while several gang members handed themselves in at special "surrender centres" that opened around the slum.
"This was the HQ, the fortress and the heart of the drug faction with the greatest firepower," said Colonel Mario Sergio Duarte, the head of Rio's military police. "We will continue chasing them wherever they are."
In an interview with Brazilian TV, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, said the operation represented "virtually a re-foundation of this city". He added: "Rio will go back to being the marvellous city. There is still a lot of work to be done but today this city has taken a major step forwards."
Among those arrested on Sunday was Zeu, a notorious Red Command trafficker who was behind the 2002 murder of the Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes.
Lopes, a reporter for Brazil's Globo television channel, was dismembered with a Samurai sword after being caught trying to film gang members selling drugs with a hidden camera. His body was burned in a so-called "microwave", a makeshift crematorium made of car-tyres.
Rodrigo Oliveira, the head of civil police operations, said: "The population of Rio can celebrate. But we do not pretend we will be able to pacify the Complexo do Alemao in two or three hours. The situation seems to be calm."
The head of Rio's drug squad, Marcus Vinicius Braga, described the operation as "worryingly calm" and suggested further confrontations were likely. "We are winning, but we haven't won yet," he said.
The week-long wave of violence that has rocked the 2016 Olympic city has shocked Brazil, with tourists from across the country reportedly cancelling holidays there. Samba schools cancelled their pre-carnival rehearsals and tens of thousands of students were unable to study.
Yesterday, the Pope sent a message of solidarity to Rio authorities and slum residents.
Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, said the operation was an attempt to make up for "30 years of neglect" in the city's slums.
"We are recovering Rio de Janeiro from decades of ills, economic and social crises and political failure," he said, vowing to promote a "social" invasion of the newly conquered slum.
This afternoon Brazilian troops hoisted the country's green and yellow flag at the crest of the Complexo do Alemao. (the gurdian)
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