The most wanted drug kingpin in Rio’s largest slum was caught hiding in the trunk of a car as dozens of crack police tighten their noose ahead of an imminent assault to take control of the Rocinha favela.
Antonio Bonfim Lopes — also known as “Nem” and considered one of the city’s most wanted criminals — was arrested on Thursday night as he tried to flee the shantytown which had been controlled by narcotraffickers for the past 30 years.
Nem’s dramatic arrest, repeatedly aired on television stations on Thursday, came as police special forces geared for an assault to pacify Rocinha, Brazil’s biggest favela.
Photo: Reuters
Rio has one of the highest murder rates in the country and the crackdown on the Rocinha drug gangs is part of an official campaign since 2008 to restore security in the city before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, which Brazil are scheduled to host.
Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral, in a television interview on Thursday, hailed Nem’s capture as “another major step to bring peace to residents of Rocinha and Vidigal” and said the drive to pacify the two favelas would be completed “by the end of the week.”
Giving details of the overnight operation, Poubel said special forces agents who set up a roadblock on one of the access roads leading to Rocinha grew suspicious when they spotted a low-riding car and thought it was carrying a heavy load.
“One of three occupants of the vehicle identified himself as the honorary consul of Congo and refused to have the car searched,” citing “his diplomatic immunity,” the official said.
The embassies of both the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo both denied having honorary consuls in Rio, according to the government media agency.
As the vehicle was being driven to the federal police headquarters, the occupants tried to bribe their way out by offering the police agents US$569,000 which they were carrying in a suitcase, the official added. Corruption is rife in the Rio police force.
“Police reinforcements were called and the vehicle was searched — Nem was in the trunk. He came out with his hands up in the air,” Poubel said.
At police headquarters, the drug kingpin was allowed to call his mother and he asked her to ensure his children go to school.
“He has seven children, including two adopted ones, from three different women and said he would resume a normal life once out of jail,” Poubel said.
Television footage later showed Nem being transferred from the federal police headquarters to the Bangu maximum security jail near Rio.
Brazilian radio stations said Nem used to be a model employee of a telecoms company who “stumbled” into organized crime after getting a loan from a former Rocinha drug baron to pay for medical care for one of his daughters.
To pay back his debts, he reportedly began dealing drugs and later took over as chief of the gang which controls Rocinha, which is home to 120,000 people.
Also captured in a separate police operation were 14 people, including five policemen who were escorting five Nem lieutenants, notably his right-hand man known as “Coelho,” Poubel said.
Poubel said the assault on Rocinha was “imminent” and local media reported it would be launched this weekend. The Globo News television channel reported that the air space over the region would be closed from Sunday at dawn.
Rocinha, built on a steep hillside overlooking the “Marvelous City” and located between two wealthy neighborhoods, is set to become the 19th favela to be cleared of traffickers.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the