Brazilian police launch mega-operation in Rio de Janeiro favelas to fight organized crime

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian authorities launched a mega-operation in Rio de Janeiro that sent a force of nearly 2,000 military and civil officers into 10 low income neighborhoods Monday seeking to regain control of areas dominated by organized crime.

The officers deployed in the city’s western zone, an area that has been the target of intense territorial disputes involving drug traffickers and militias in recent years, the Rio de Janeiro state government said in a statement.

The operation, which also seeks to carry out arrest warrants, has no end date, the the statement said.

“The state government’s security task force is on the streets to fight criminal organizations that want to take the population hostage,” said Gov. Cláudio Castro, who was present as troops and police began the operation at 4 a.m., the statement said.

Officers deployed across the sprawling urban neighborhoods — known as favelas — of Rio das Pedras, Terreirao, Cesar Maia/Coroado, Cidade de Deus, Muzema, Gardenia Azul, Tijuquinha, Fontela, Morro do Banco and Sitio do Pai Joao.

Organized by Rio’s state government, the operation included participation by Brazil's navy and the municipal guard as well as employees for cable TV and internet operators and water, electricity and gas utilities.

The spread of organized crime in Rio’s western zone has led to fierce confrontations between law enforcement agencies and different factions of drug-trafficking groups and militias.

The militias — formed in the late 1980s to stop drug traffickers’ expansion — moved into land-grabbing and real estate more recently and control over half the territory in Rio’s metropolitan region, according to a 2022 study from the Federal Fluminense University and the Fogo Cruzado Institute.