RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Police captured one of Rio de Janeiro’s most-wanted drug traffickers yesterday as they prepared to occupy the Brazilian city’s largest slum, a vital step in preparations to host the Olympic Games in 2016.
“Nem,” the alleged drug lord of the teeming Rocinha slum, was captured in bizarre circumstances when police said they found him in the trunk of a luxury car being driven by other gang members posing as diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Television images showed the fresh-faced Nem, reported to be 35 years old, sitting in the trunk of a police car and looking close to tears after his arrest.
“It’s a historic moment in the fight against drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro,” said Jose Mariano Beltrame, the state security secretary who leading Rio’s push to crack down on organized crime and police corruption.
Police told reporters they had stopped the car as it tried to leave Rocinha, one of Latin America’s most infamous slums — a sprawling hillside home to more than 100,000 people that is close to some of Rio’s most exclusive areas and best beaches.
They said the car’s three occupants identified themselves as the Congolese consul, another diplomat from the African country and a lawyer. They tried to bribe police with cash to allow them to pass. Nem put up no resistance when police opened the trunk and was taken along with his three associates to the federal police headquarters in Rio.
“He sent a message to his children telling them not to miss their lessons,” federal police officer Victor Poubel was quoted as saying by the Globo TV network.
Police are expected to invade and occupy Rocinha as early as this weekend as Rio authorities expand a security program that is taking back swathes of the city that have long been dominated by armed drug gangs. Previous occupations of more than a dozen slums have been carried out with barely a shot fired as drug gangs have been warned in advance of the heavily armed invasions.
Officials say they intend to expand police occupations to all of the remaining major gang strongholds by 2014, when Rio will be a World Cup host city and two years before it showcases itself to the world again as host of the Olympic Games.
The existence of slum areas outside the control of the state has been increasingly at odds with Rio’s rise as the center of Brazil’s new oil wealth and host of the global showpiece events.