Huge Brazilian raid on Rio gang leaves 64 dead

About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left at least 64 suspects and four police officers 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 Alemao and Penha, police said.

The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil's recent history, with human rights organizations calling for investigations into the deaths.

Rio’s state Gov. Claudio Castro said in a video posted on X that 60 criminal suspects were "neutralized” during the massive raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city's history. Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said, adding that those killed "resisted police action.”

Rio's civil police said on X that four officers died in Tuesday's operation. "The cowardly attacks by criminals against our agents will not go unpunished,” it said.

An unknown number of people were wounded.

The United Nations' human rights body said it was "horrified” by the deadly police operation, called for effective investigations and reminded authorities of their obligations under international human rights law.

César Muñoz, director of Human Rights Watch in Brazil, called Tuesday’s events "a huge tragedy” and a "disaster.”

"The public prosecutor’s office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death,” Muñoz said in a statement.

Associated Press