STRONG IMAGES
After the operation against the Red Command in Brazil, the Rio de Janeiro police released videos of the actions of the agents, who were injured in different confrontations with drug traffickers.
Mexico City, November 4 (However).- The Government of Rio de Janeiro spread this Monday images of the deadliest operation in the history of Brazilwhich has left 121 people diedamong them four police officers, according to figures confirmed by the authorities, after a raid carried out by the police in the favelas of Complexo do Alemão and Complexo da Penha, last week, against the criminal group called “Red Command” (“Red Commando”in Spanish).
The images were captured by body cameras that the agents wore on their uniforms. However, the secretary of the Military police, Marcelo de Menezesacknowledged that many cameras may not have worked because their batteries ran out during the 18-hour operation. According to the authorities, all the suspects who were arrested in the operation were related to the Red Command and they had serious criminal records.
Body cameras show the moment a sergeant is shot while trying to rescue a colleague in Rio. The agent was one of four police officers killed in the mega-operation. pic.twitter.com/3Mo1N5TvhF
— Brasil Urgente (@brasilurgente) November 3, 2025
Corporal Oliveira, a member of the Special Operations Battalion (Bope) of the Military Police, is the protagonist of a video, in which he was shot in the left thigh in the wooded area of the Misericordia Mountains that divides Alemão and Penha, for which the agent was helped by a group of police officers who improvised a stretcher to lift him up. However, Sergeant Cleiton Serafim Gonçalves, another member of this elite corps who participated in these tasks, died shortly after in the clashes.
In another video, Sergeant Walner Santana, from the dog actions group, was also wounded by a gunshot during a confrontation with drug traffickers in the Vila Cruzeiro favela, in the Complexo da Penha, but he was able to receive first aid and was later removed by his companions in the middle of a shootout.
The operation, unprecedented even on a Brazilian scale, mobilized more than 2,500 Civil and Military police officers in Rio de Janeiro in the Complexo do Alemão and Complexo do Penha favelas, where other massacres had already occurred in previous years, in the northern part of the city. Together they have 26 communities, strongholds of drug trafficking, state authorities accuse.
Among the 113 detained so far, according to reports, is an alleged leader of the “Comando Vermelho” identified as responsible for the violence in the group of favelas: Thiago do Nascimento Mendes, alias “Belao do Qutungo.” For his part, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, the conservative Cláudio Castro, an ally of former coup president Jaír Bolsonaro, described the operation as a State response to “narcoterrorism” and affirmed that it is “a war.”
“Rio de Janeiro is alone. This situation exceeds our powers. There should already be integration with the federal forces,” he accused the Lula Government, which later rejected the notion and even called for the Governor to “throw in the towel” and allow the entry of the federal authorities.
“I want to express my solidarity with the families of the four brave men who lost their lives to free the population. They were the real victims. The only victims of yesterday were the police,” said the far-right, describing the operation in the favelas as a “success.”
As for the “Comando Vermelho”, according to crime specialist Ian Grillo, this group was formed in the 70s of the last century, when bank robbers were imprisoned along with political prisoners and it became an “extensive drug mafia.” This is the oldest criminal group in Brazil, formed in a prison in Rio de Janeiro as a self-protection group for prisoners, agreement con Insight Crime.
“It started with minor crimes, such as assaults and bank robberies, but in the 1980s the group ventured into cocaine trafficking, working with Colombian drug cartels and assuming a social leadership role in many of Rio’s marginalized neighborhoods,” the specialist explained.
The capo Edgar Alves Andrade, known as “Doca”, or “Urso”, is identified as the main leader of the Vermeho Command. According to Brazilian press reports, unlike “Belao”, his right wing commander, “Doca” managed to flee Tuesday’s operation, although he lost part of his security block, made up of at least 70 armed men.
According to the media, “Doca” is linked to at least a hundred murders and controls the favelas where the operation hit on Tuesday. But he was not captured, nor has he been in recent years, despite having twenty arrest warrants against him.
The authorities have even offered a hefty reward for information leading to the capture of “Doca”: 100 thousand Brazilian reais, about 18,500 dollars, about 350 thousand Mexican pesos.
Tuesday’s operation sought above all to capture the leaders of the Red Command: they managed to arrest “Belao”, the number two, but not the main leader of the CV.