Rio de Janeiro police carry out operation against irregular construction riotimesonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from riotimesonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Twenty-five people, including one police officer, were killed in a police anti-drug raid in a slum on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, according to state police, despite a Supreme Court order banning such operations other than in âabsolutely exceptionalâ circumstances during the pandemic.
Human rights groups and academic researchers say the widely criticized raid in the Jacarezinho favela was among the deadliest operations in the history of Rio de Janeiro, a state of 17 million that in 2020 alone tallied 1,239 people killed by the police, according to the state governmentâs Institute for Public Security (ISP.)
In a press conference late Thursday, a spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police said the purpose of the operation was to prevent drug traffickers from forcing minors to join gangs. âWe went to that community to guarantee the rights of that population that lives under the dictatorship of drug trafficking,â Felipe Curi, director of the General Depart