Overview
- Roughly 2,500 state police and special units entered the Complexo do Alemão and Penha in a large operation that saw urban firefights, burned buses used as barricades, and the reported use of drones to drop explosives.
- The fatality count, initially put at at least 64 including four officers, climbed to around 138 after residents recovered dozens of bodies, many from the Collina da Misericórdia area.
- Rights groups and the United Nations voiced concern over the mounting deaths, as witnesses and lawyers alleged possible executions and urged an independent inquiry.
- Governor Cláudio Castro defended the action as a state offensive against “narco‑terrorists” and called it a success, while the gang’s leader Edgar “Doca da Penha” Alves Andrade evaded capture.
- Authorities reported at least 81 arrests, with a later police tally citing 113, and seizures including 93 rifles and over half a ton of drugs, as schools closed and flights were suspended at Galeão airport.