{"id":100848,"date":"2025-10-29T17:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100848"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:21:32","slug":"death-toll-in-massive-police-raid-on-drug-gang-in-rio-rises-119-brazilian-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100848","title":{"rendered":"Death toll in massive police raid on drug gang in Rio rises 119, Brazilian police say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The death toll in a massive police raid on a notorious drug gang in Rio de Janeiro rose Wednesday to 119 killed, including four policemen, Brazilian police said.<\/p>\n

The previous toll given by authorities was 60 suspected gang members and four policemen, following Tuesday\u2019s operation by 2,500 police and soldiers that sparked clashes in two low-income neighbourhoods of the city.<\/p>\n

The tally of suspects arrested stood at 113 \u2014 up from 81 cited previously, police spokesman Felipe Curi told a news conference.<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/figure>\n

After a massive police raid on a notorious drug gang, residents of a\u00a0Rio de Janeiro\u00a0favela spent all night collecting bodies in trucks from inside and around their urban community and then laying them down in a central square.<\/p>\n

By early morning Wednesday, at least 50 bodies of mostly young men without shirts lay on the ground in Penha, one of two sites targeted in Rio\u2019s\u00a0deadliest police operation, which is being decried by critics as Brazil\u2019s latest example of the excessive use of force.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of residents and family members of victims surrounded the bodies, some crying while others screamed \u201cmassacre\u201d and later chanted \u201cjustice,\u201d according to an AP journalist at the scene.<\/p>\n

The raid Tuesday by 2,500 police and soldiers in helicopters, armoured vehicles and on foot left at least 64 people dead, including 60 suspected gang members and four policemen, according to state Gov. Claudio Castro and police.<\/p>\n

Residents said they believed the tally was higher and that some of the bodies they were collecting were not yet likely to have been included. Many were found in a wooded ridge near the urban community, they said.<\/p>\n

By late Wednesday morning, forensic authorities had retrieved the bodies. The state government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Local activist Raull Santiago said he was part of a team that found about 15 bodies before dawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw executed people: shot in the back, shots to the head, stab wounds, people tied up. This level of brutality, the hatred spread \u2013 there\u2019s no other way to describe it except as a massacre,\u201d Santiago said.<\/p>\n

Castro said on Tuesday that Rio was at war against \u201cnarco-terrorism,\u201d a term that echoed the Trump administration\u00a0in its campaign against drug smuggling\u00a0in Latin America. Rio\u2019s state government said that those who had been killed had resisted police action.<\/p>\n

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio\u2019s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/figure>\n

But the scale and lethality of Tuesday\u2019s operation are unprecedented. Non-governmental organizations and the U.N. human rights body quickly raised concerns over the high number of reported fatalities and called for investigations.<\/p>\n

The operation\u2019s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial expansion of the Red Command criminal gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years.<\/p>\n

Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said.<\/p>\n

The police raid drew gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, causing scenes of chaos across the city. Schools in the affected areas shuttered, a local university cancelled classes, and roads were blocked with buses used as barricades.<\/p>\n

Gang members allegedly targeted police with at least one drone. Rio de Janeiro\u2019s state government shared a video on X of what appeared to show a drone firing a projectile from the sky.<\/p>\n

Gov. Castro, from the conservative opposition Liberal Party, said Tuesday that Rio was \u201calone in this war.\u201d He said the federal government should be providing more support to combat crime \u2014 in a swipe at the administration of leftist President\u00a0Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n

His comments were challenged by the Justice Ministry, which said it had responded to requests from Rio\u2019s state government to deploy national forces in the state, renewing their presence 11 times.<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/figure>\n

Gleisi Hoffmann, the Lula administration\u2019s liaison with the parliament, agreed that more coordinated action was needed but pointed to a recent\u00a0crackdown on money laundering\u00a0as an example of the federal government\u2019s action on organised crime.<\/p>\n

Lula\u2019s chief of staff, Rui Costa, requested an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Rio with local authorities and Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

Criminal gangs have expanded their presence across Brazil in recent years,\u00a0including in the Amazon rainforest.<\/p>\n

Filipe dos Anjos, secretary general of favela rights organisation FAFERJ, said that this kind of police operation doesn\u2019t solve the problem, as those who were killed are easily replaceable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn about thirty days, organised crime will already be reorganised in the territory, doing what it always does: selling drugs, stealing cargo, collecting payments and fees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of concrete results for the population, for society, this kind of operation achieves practically nothing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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