Daily Archives: January 30, 2018
Rio de Janeiro’s Drug War
Brazilian soldiers pour into Rio de Janeiro’s Rocinha slum in a bid to quell drug-related violence. Rogério da Silva, 36, also known as Rogério 157, was seized in an operation involving 3,000 Brazilian military and police. He was wanted for homicide, extortion and drug trafficking, and a $15,000 reward had been offered for his arrest. “He was arrested by the police in an integrated operation by police and armed forces in the Arará Park favela,” a spokesman for the security forces said. “He did not resist. He was surrounded.” Rio’s O Globo newspaper said he was caught hiding under a duvet after jumping the wall of his safe house. His arrest marks a rare success for police in a city where violent crime is soaring, and where a much heralded pre-Olympic plan, to pacify favelas with armed police bases, has fallen apart as drug gangs have reoccupied territory.