A significant police operation targeting organized crime in Rio de Janeiro has resulted in the deaths of at least 64 individuals, according to security officials. This includes the loss of four Brazilian police officers.

Rio de Janeiro State Governor, Cláudio Castro, announced that the operation is ongoing and warned that the death toll might increase. In a statement on social media, authorities noted the confiscation of at least 42 rifles during the raid.

Described as the largest operation of its kind in the state’s history, the government of Rio de Janeiro highlighted the scale and intensity of the raid, which commenced on Tuesday.

Such police actions are not uncommon in the sprawling city of 13 million, especially ahead of international events. The city is set to host the C40 World Mayors Summit, a major climate conference, next week.

Footage captured by Reuters revealed scenes of the Alemão favela engulfed in massive plumes of black smoke amidst the police crackdown.

Video published by Reuters showed huge columns of black smoke emerging from the Alemão favela during the raid.

Photographs of Alemão in the aftermath showed the source: burned cars, constructed as barricades.

Authorities launched an operation aiming to “combat the territorial expansion” of the Comando Vermelho criminal group, Rio de Janeiro’s government added in a lengthy thread on X.

The operation was in the works for over a year, the government said, and involved more than 2500 military and civilian police personnel.

Comando Vermelho is Brazil’s oldest active criminal organisation, according to the think tank InSight Crime. Its name, Portuguese for “Red Command,” is a reference to its origins as a leftist prisoners’ organisation formed during the military dictatorship that ruled over Brazil until 1985.

Since then, Red Command has become a massive, transnational criminal group, involved in drug trafficking and extortion. InSight Crime reports that in recent years, it has struggled with escalating violence from the state and other criminal militias.

Gang used drones, police claim

At least 81 people were arrested on Tuesday, according to a social media post by Rio de Janeiro’s Police Department.

During the raid, gang members allegedly targeted police with a drone, authorities said.

“In retaliation, criminals used drones to attack police officers in the Penha Complex,” Rio de Janeiro’s state government said in a post on X, sharing a video of what appears to show a drone firing a projectile from the sky.

“Despite the attacks, security forces remain steadfast in the fight against crime,” the state government added.

“This is the magnitude of the challenge we face,” Castro said in a post, before using a term popular among tough-on-crime leaders in the United States and Latin America. “It is no longer common crime, it is narco-terrorism.”

Past raids on similar slums in Brazil have attracted copious criticism from civil rights advocates. In May 2021, a raid in the Jacarezinho favela killed at least 25 people and led the Supreme Court to ban all police raids until the end of the COVID pandemic unless the circumstances were “absolutely exceptional.”