Rehearsals and Tactical Failures Exposed in Rio’s Deadly Alemão Raid

Overview

• The operation, which took place on October 28, 2025, deployed roughly 2,500 officers in the Complexos do Alemão and da Penha and left 122 people dead and 13 police wounded, including delegate Bernardo Leal who later had a leg amputated.
• Commanders told prosecutors they ran an extended 75-day series of rehearsals and planned to seize the Serra da Misericórdia high ground, and they abandoned earlier plans for clandestine infiltration after an agent was shot during practice.
• Traffickers mounted far stronger and more sustained resistance than planners expected, prolonging firefights for about 17 hours and forcing police to change tactics and carry out risky rescues under fire.
• Judicial follow-up to the raid has executed 51 arrest warrants and produced 67 indictments for association with drug trafficking plus three denouncements for torture, while the Public Defender filed a R$50 million civil suit for collective moral damages to residents.
• The revelations sharpen public scrutiny: residents have complained of rights violations and home invasions, some officers involved later won elective office, and investigators and courts now face pressure to decide how policing tactics and accountability will change in Rio.