Dozens Killed In Raid As Brazilian Police Targets Crime Syndicate, Officials Say

A joint police-military raid Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil targeting one of the country’s most notorious crime syndicates left at least 64 people dead, including four police officers, according to multiple reports…

Anthony IafrateOct 28, 20253 min read

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A joint police-military raid Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil targeting one of the country’s most notorious crime syndicates left at least 64 people dead, including four police officers, according to multiple reports.

The State of Rio de Janeiro’s government said that the massive operation, dubbed Operação Contenção, Portuguese for “Operation Containment,” targeting criminal organization Comando Vermelho (CV) was the largest such raid in the state’s history, CNN Brasil reported. The operation’s purpose was to “combat the territorial expansion” of CV. It had been in preparation for more than a year and was carried out by an over 2,500-strong coalition consisting of both civilian police officers and Brazilian military, according to CNN.

Authorities “neutralized” 60 suspects and made 81 arrests as a result of the operation, Rio de Janeiro Gov. Cláudio Castro said in a video he posted to his X account, as reported by the AP. The operation also resulted in the seizure of a significant amount of drugs, according to the state government, per the AP.

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While the operation was taking place, CV members used drones to attack police, the state government wrote in a Tuesday morning post to X.

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“Even under attack, security forces remain steadfast in the fight against crime!” the government added in the post, originally in Portuguese.

While Tuesday’s raid was the largest in Rio de Janeiro’s history, previous raids in the city also resulted in dozens of deaths. A 2005 raid left 29 dead while a 2021 operation resulted in 28 fatalities, according to the AP.

CV was founded in 1979 and is the oldest crime syndicate in Brazil. Its name translates as “Red Command,” alluding to the fact that it was born from a collaboration between petty criminals and far-left militants. The group began in a prison and eventually made its way onto the streets of Rio de Janeiro and went on to work with Colombian cocaine cartels. Less than three decades after CV’s founding, it was believed to have had control over the majority of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, known as favelas, according to InSight Crime.

In addition to Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian crime syndicate also operates in the Amazon rainforest and has partnered with drug traffickers and armed groups in the neighboring countries of Colombia and Peru, as reported by EL PAÍS in January 2025.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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