Police operation leaves more than a dozen dead in a Rio de Janeiro favela

A joint operation by the Civil Police and the Military Police against drug trafficking left at least 11 dead in the Complexo do Salgueiro, a favela in the city of Sao Gonçalo, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro (southeast).

According to police reports quoted by TV Globo, there are “at least 11 dead,” including the main target of the operation, Leonardo Costa Araújo, known as Leo 41.

Araújo led drug trafficking in the state of Pará (northern Brazil) and has been outlawed since 2019; according to the police, he is the main responsible for a series of attacks that have since 2021 killed more than 40 police officers in that state.

The police are also looking for other leaders of the Comando Vermelho (CV), a faction of drug trafficking that, in recent months, has been generating intense shootouts and waves of violence in shantytowns in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro.

Five armored vehicles, two helicopters, and 80 men, many of them from the Special Operations Battalion (Bope) of the Military Police, are participating in the police operation on March 23.

With information from Sputnik