By Patricia Maresch, Senior Contributing Reporter,
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Two militia members have already been arrested at the beginning of a Civil Police operation that started at 4AM on Thursday. Approximately 150 police officers were involved in Operation Pandora, arresting more suspects in connection with the militias in Campo Grande, in Rio’s Zona Oeste (West Zone).
One of the suspects is the retired Civil Police officer Bastos de Souza, who worked at the Internal Affairs Department and passed on vital police information to the militias.
According to the police the militias are committing a wide variety of crimes, from illegal public transport and gambling houses to extortion and murder.
“It is their goal to economically dominate a region through violence and terror,” a police spokesperson for Operation Pandora said to the press.
During today’s operation the Civil Police are out to capture members of the militias that operate in Campo Grande, Cosmos, Inhoaíba, Satntíssimo, Paciência and Sepetiba.
There are no reports that today’s operation is connected to the violent killing of Judge Patrícia Acioli mid-August.
Read more (in Portuguese).
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