Sat Nov 01 06:20:54 UTC 2025: News Article:
Over 120 Killed in Brazil’s Deadliest Police Operation Targeting Red Command Ahead of Climate Summit
Rio de Janeiro – A massive police operation in Rio de Janeiro this week has left at least 121 people dead, marking the deadliest such crackdown in Brazil’s history. The raids were aimed at dismantling the Comando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, one of Brazil’s oldest and most powerful criminal organizations. The CV is a major player in the drug trade across multiple cities, and the operation aimed to dislodge the gang from its strongholds.
The operation comes just ahead of the United Nations COP30 climate summit in northern Brazil next week, with Rio hosting the associated C40 global gathering of mayors and the Earthshot Prize awards.
Authorities stated that the meticulously planned raids, which had been in the works for over two months, were designed to drive suspected gang members from Rio’s densely populated favelas into an ambush set by a special operations unit. Police reported that CV leaders from several states, including Amazonas, Bahia, Goias, and Espirito Santo, were among those killed.
The Comando Vermelho, originating in the 1970s within Rio’s prison system during the military dictatorship, has grown to control vast areas of Rio’s periphery, dominating drug sales and imposing its own rules through violence. Besides drug trafficking, the gang is involved in extortion, robbery, and even exploits public services within its areas of influence. Insight Crime estimates its membership to be around 30,000.
In recent years, the CV has expanded its reach into other Brazilian states, particularly those in the Amazon region, seeking new drug and arms trafficking routes. According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, crime rates in the Amazon are sharply increasing due to violent disputes between gangs like the CV and the First Capital Command (PCC), Brazil’s largest crime syndicate, over control of key routes linking South American cocaine producers to global markets. While a truce between the two gangs was sealed in February, it proved short-lived, lasting only weeks.
The Comando Vermelho primarily competes with the PCC and paramilitary groups for trafficking routes and prison control, often resulting in violent clashes.
First Piper 