Pubdate: Mon, 20 Aug 2001
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Section: International News
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Peter Muello, Associated Press Writer

KILLINGS RISE AS RIO DE JANEIRO'S DRUG WAR ESCALATES

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil  -  An escalating drug war has left 17 people dead 
in the past three days, including four men shot to death Monday in a slum 
near the capital, police said.

The four were believed to have links to drug traffickers in the slum known 
as Juca's Hole, said police in Niteroi, across Guanabara Bay from Rio de 
Janeiro.

On Sunday, police found 13 bodies in a parked minivan in the Vila da Penha 
district on Rio's poor north side. The eight men and five women were shot 
and stabbed to death in what police said was a vendetta between rival drug 
gangs. Police believe the victims died late Saturday or early Sunday.

Police Chief Reginaldo Guilherme da Silva of Rio's 38th precinct said the 
killings were carried out by a gang known as the "Third Command," which had 
recently lost control of the drug trade at the Quitungo Hill slum to its 
archrival, the "Red Command."

"Most of the victims were involved with trafficking," da Silva said. "They 
were at a barbecue to commemorate the taking of Quitungo Hill by the Red 
Command."

The two gangs and others, notably the "Friends of Friends," are warring for 
control of the lucrative cocaine and marijuana trade that thrives in 
hundreds of Rio shantytowns, known as favelas.

Armed with sophisticated automatic weapons smuggled into Brazil - notably 
the AR-15 assault rifle - traffickers have turned the favelas into virtual 
fortresses, terrorizing residents with deadly firefights.

On Monday, more than 100 police agents were deployed to the Quitungo favela 
to try to avert more bloodshed.

The most recent massacres were especially embarrassing for Rio, which is 
holding an international meeting of police chiefs to discuss ways to combat 
crime.

As the meeting opened Sunday, Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Anthony Garotinho 
said 70 percent of some 3,000 people arrested every month have ties to the 
drug trade. He called on the federal government to come up with a plan to 
curb the entry of illegal guns and drugs.

Josias Quintal, the state's public security secretary, said police efforts 
were hopeless without a federal plan to deal with the problem at its source 
- - creating jobs and alternatives to easy drug money.

"This massacre is the result" of the ineffective approach, he said.
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