Narcotics Gang Shootout Vs Brazilian Police, 25 People Killed

Brazilian police conduct searches. (Wikimedia Commons/Agência Brasil)

JAKARTA - At least 25 people have died in a shootout between suspected drug dealers and police in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, May 6 local time, in one of the Brazil Police's deadliest attacks since 2005.

People who were targeted in raids in Jacarezinho's impoverished neighborhood tried to flee across the roof as police arrived in armored vehicles and helicopters flying overhead, television images showed. The shootout forced residents to take refuge in their homes.

The victims included a police officer, and the rest were suspected to be members of a drug gang. Police said among the dead included leaders of a gang of powerful drug trafficking gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, 10 other people were arrested by the police and three police officers were injured.

It was the deadliest single police operation in 16 years in Rio State, since the 2005 attack on Baixada Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro's northern suburbs, in which 20 people were killed at the time.

"This is one of the largest deaths in police operations in Rio, surpassing 19 in the Complexo do Alemão slum area in 2007, except we didn't lose any of us at that time," said police chief Ronaldo Oliveira, told Reuters on Friday, May 7.

Police said that apart from drug trafficking, the gang also robbed cargo trucks and picked up commuter trains to steal from passengers.

"The bullets fired during the firefight hit a light rail carriage, and two passengers were injured by shards of glass from the shattered windows," said a firefighter.

The police also showed off a number of weapons that were confiscated from drug dealers, such as six assault rifles, 15 pistols, one machine gun, 14 grenades, and one artillery ammunition.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the raids by the Brazilian Police. HRW said Rio de Janeiro prosecutors had a constitutional obligation to supervise and carry out criminal investigations into police abuses. HRW is calling for a thorough and independent investigation into the death involving police officers.

According to HRW, Rio police killed 453 people and at least four police officers were killed in police action during the first three months of this year, despite a Supreme Court ruling banning operations in communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, except in truly extraordinary cases.