At least eleven people were killed on Thursday March 23 in a police operation in a favela near Rio de Janeiro, including a leader of a drug trafficking gang from northern Brazil, local media reported.
The operation in the Salgueiro complex, located in Sao Gonçalo, a poor suburb of Rio, aimed to capture "
members of Comando Vermelho from the state of Para (North) who had taken refuge there
", announced the police, confirming the operation, but not the toll of eleven killed announced by the G1 site.
Codename "L41"
Police added that the operation was "
still ongoing
" at the end of the day.
The Comando Vermelho is one of the main criminal organizations in Brazil, very active in drug trafficking.
Para State Governor Helder Barbalho said on Twitter that "
Leonardo Araujo, known by the code name of 'L41', wanted by police, died in clashes with law enforcement
" .
"
He was the main leader of the largest criminal organization in Para and had led several attacks in Rio
," he said.
This police operation targeted "
those responsible for a series of attacks against Para public security agents
", as well as 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.
Two women, 53 and 62, were injured in the exchange of fire, the G1 news site said.
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
".
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.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ZAKACA3UB5CRPJK2EPZ4WKC62Q.jpg)
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
