Some 2,600 police and paratroopers stormed the Complexo do Alemão favela in northern Rio de Janeiro before dawn on Sunday 28 November 2010, meeting less resistance than expected after traffickers were given a sunset ultimatum to surrender.[1][2] Officers later hoisted Brazilian and police flags on the hilltop and formed a human chain to carry the seized drugs to lorries waiting in a main street.[1]
Police said they seized 40 tons of marijuana, already packaged for delivery, from several houses in Grota, one of the shantytowns making up the complex, as well as cocaine.[1][2] A state security spokesman told AFP the military police alone had taken 20 tons and civilian forces the rest; the BBC’s earlier count had put the haul at more than 30 tons.[1][2] During house-to-house searches officers found the empty three-storey mansion of an alleged dealer, complete with rooftop swimming pool, sauna, disco and its own armoury.[1]
The assault followed a week of clashes between security forces and suspected dealers across Rio’s slums, in which at least 45 people were killed, after the traffickers fled to Alemão from the neighbouring Vila Cruzeiro favela.[1][2] Amnesty’s Brazil researcher said police had killed over 50 people that week in operations across communities, including a 14-year-old girl, and criticised the militarised approach.[1]
