Rio police kill drug gangsters in crime crackdown

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 25 (Reuters) One gangster died and two police officers were injured in a shootout during the second day of a joint raid by some 250 troops and police on a northern Rio slum, authorities said today.

Five bandits were gunned down and 14 suspected drug gangsters were arrested in Wednesday's 12-hour crackdown on the Vila Cruzeiro slum, a military police official said.

''It's quiet now. Shops and schools have reopened,'' the official said.

Last week nearly 500 troopers in the paramilitary National Public Security Force were sent to Rio de Janeiro state. They are the advanced guard of about 6,000 troops to boost security ahead of the Pan American Games in Rio in July.

The force will initially patrol highways and guard state borders to curb drug and gun smuggling.

Crime fighting has been hampered by disputes between federal and state authorities and lack of cooperation between police forces.

State governor Sergio Cabral requested military aid after a wave of violence in December during which at least 19 people were killed, including seven civilians burned alive in a bus.

In the first combined operation on Wednesday, the military and civil police officers supported by two helicopters raided Vila Cruzeiro in search of arms, drugs and bandits suspected of being responsible for the recent crime wave, the state's Public Security Secretariat said.

''Secrecy was the key to success,'' Public Security Secretary Mariano Beltrame said in a statement, adding that similar operations will follow.

Among the captured was Edgard Alves de Andrade, known as ''Doca,'' the suspected drug kingpin in Vila Cruzeiro. Police seized guns, grenades, mobile phones, a radio transmitter and 10 kilos (22 pounds) of cocaine and marijuana blocks.

Also today, a Rio de Janeiro court upheld a 444-year prison sentence imposed on drug trafficker Anderson Goncalves.

It followed an automatic retrial after his conviction in November for involvement in the burning of a Rio bus that caused the deaths of five people, including a baby.

Crime, fueled by drugs and poverty, is a huge problem in Brazil, especially in large cities such as Rio de Janeiro.

Poorly paid and underequipped police say they lack the firepower to deal with the heavily armed drug gangs that rule the hillside slums overlooking seafront apartment buildings in this tourist city.

REUTERS PDS RN0250