Police in Rio de Janeiro are carrying out a major operation in some of the city’s biggest favelas since the early hours of this Monday. They are trying to arrest 100 men linked to the Red Command organized crime group, which was behind the murder of three doctors last week, and of the four men accused of killing them.
Roughly 1,000 police officers are participating in the operation, which is also using drones, facial recognition, and license plate cameras. According to the state government, it is the first time a major police operation in Rio has used such high-level technology.
Officers are also using body cams on their uniforms as a way of preventing the unnecessary use of force or violence against innocent residents. Rio’s police are one of the most violent in the country, being responsible for almost 30 percent of all the state’s violent deaths last year.
The operation is taking place in the Cidade de Deus favela to the city’s west, and the neighborhoods of Penha and Maré to the north. Residents complain of massive shootings since dawn. Some schools have been closed, affecting more than 20,000 students. Healthcare units also shut down. So far, there are no reports of injured people.
Two police helicopters were shot at while flying over Vila Cruzeiro, one of the Penha favelas. One officer suffered non-severe injuries.
Rio security forces also ordered cell phone service to be cut off in the vicinity of two maximum security prisons after learning that leaders of the Red Command criminal organization had held a videoconference last week to discuss an “informal trial,” sentencing to death the men accused of killing three doctors at a beachfront bar last week.
The triple murder gained huge media attention, prompting the gang’s leaders to hold a video call, ordering the death of the four men who carried out the shooting, hoping to avoid increased police attention in organized crime-controlled areas.
Seven men have been arrested so far, and 17 cars were seized. Police also encountered a laboratory manufacturing drugs and explosives.
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