A police officer holds his gun up next to residents on a barricade during the Operação Contenção (Operation Containment) at the Vila Cruzeiro favela, in the Penha complex, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025. MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP
About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, October 28, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left at least 60 suspects dead, officials said. The operation included officers in helicopters and armored vehicles and targeted the notorious Red Command in the sprawling low-income favelas of Complexo de Alemão and Penha, police said. The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil's recent history, with at least one human rights organization calling for an investigation into each death.
Rio's state Governor Claudio Castro said in a video posted on social platform X that 60 criminal suspects were "neutralized," 81 arrested and 75 rifles seized during the massive one-day raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city's history. A large amount of drugs also was seized, the state government said.
An Associated Press journalist also saw the bodies of at least two police officers among 10 bodies brought to the Getulio Vargas hospital in Penha. Police did not immediately confirm the deaths of officers. An unknown number of people also were wounded.
