The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro seized, in January this year, 410 firearms that were held by organized crime. Among the weapons seized were 84 rifles, the largest number of the historical series, which began in 2015. Most of the seizures were made in municipalities of the Baixada Fluminense, where there is a territory dispute for rival criminal factions.
The number of rifles seized last month exceeds the seizures of this type of war weapons recorded in 2023, when 53 units were collected in the same period by military police.
Until then, the record of seizures in a single month was in August 2024, when military police removed 78 rifles from circulation.
PF seizures
In the early hours of last Thursday (30), the Federal Police (PF) arrested two men and seized 11 rifles during an operation on RJ-127, at the time of Paracambi, metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. The action was conducted by the PF Superintendency Drug Police Station (DRE) in Rio de Janeiro. These weapons do not enter the statistics of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police.
The federal police officers located and approached two vehicles: a car and a motorcycle, which carried the weaponry in three bags. In all, eight 5.56 caliber rifles were seized and three 7.62 caliber, in addition to the vehicles used to transport the weapons.
According to the investigations, the armament was destined for the Penha Complex, a community controlled by the Red Command, the largest criminal faction in Rio de Janeiro.
