At least 119 people were killed in Tuesday’s bloody police raids on drug traffickers in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, according to local police officials, nearly doubling the earlier toll of 60. Among those killed in the military-style operation targeting Rio’s most powerful criminal organisation, the Comando Vermelho, were 115 gang suspects and four police officers, the police officials announced Wednesday.
Rio de Janeiro’s state public defender’s office put the death toll even higher at 132. “The elevated lethality of the operation was expected but not desired,” Victor Santos, head of security for Rio state, said at a news conference Wednesday.
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