🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A reporter who documented the results of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has reported how residents brought back badly injured victims of those who had died.

The casualties "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan reported. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

More than 120 people were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

The photographer stated that residents first notified him to the raid early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The reporter went to the healthcare center, where the victims were arriving.

The photographer stated that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the operation zone, where the operation were taking place.

"Security forces created a barrier and announced: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in the area, reported he was able to enter into the restricted zone, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that evening, community members began to search the hillside that borders Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation impacted me profoundly: the pain of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the region announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was intended to stopping a criminal group referred to as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government claimed that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates indicates that 117 individuals have been killed.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has calculated the final tally of fatalities to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has managed to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in the country, in company with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city extensively, the gang "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The organization focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking firearms, precious metals, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and authorities stated that during the raid, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, characterized gang affiliates as drug terrorists and called the law enforcement personnel who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed during the raid has received condemnation from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

At a news conference the next day, the official justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He further explained that the circumstances worsened because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

In a post on online platforms, he said that certain victims had been stripped of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi from the police department additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and arms" were stripped from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse