Rio de Janeiro's Drug War

Brazilian soldiers pour into Rio de Janeiro's Rocinha slum in a bid to quell drug-related violence. Rog�rio da Silva, 36, also known as Rog�rio 157, was seized in an operation involving 3,000 Brazilian military and police. He was wanted for homicide, extortion and drug trafficking, and a $15,000 reward had been offered for his arrest. �He was arrested by the police in an integrated operation by police and armed forces in the Arar� Park favela,� a spokesman for the security forces said. �He did not resist. He was surrounded.� Rio�s O Globo newspaper said he was caught hiding under a duvet after jumping the wall of his safe house. His arrest marks a rare success for police in a city where violent crime is soaring, and where a much heralded pre-Olympic plan, to pacify favelas with armed police bases, has fallen apart as drug gangs have reoccupied territory.

The conflict reached new heights in September, and led to a military operation which failed to quell the violence. A month later a Spanish tourist was shot by police, who said the car she was travelling in went past a roadblock. �Rog�rio is one of the most wanted traffickers in Rio de Janeiro,� Bento said. �The arrest was very important to dismantle organised crime.� In recent months local media published photographs of da Silva wearing heavy jewellery. The Rio tabloid Extra said he had earned his nickname carrying out armed street robberies � 157 is the penal code article for the crime � before joining the drug gang led by Ant�nio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, aka Nem, a Rocinha gang leader immortalised in the bestselling book . Nem was arrested fleeing the favela, hiding in the boot of a car, after the area was occupied in a military operation in 2011. He is still in prison.