Brazilian president Lula da Silva promised full support from the federal government to Rio de Janeiro authorities involved in a clean-up operation to free the city’s shanty towns, favelas, from drug traffickers and organized crime.
Armoured personnel carriers from the Brazilian navy rolled through smoke-filled streets in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday as police battled (favelas) slum-based drug gangs for a fifth consecutive day leaving at least 30 dead and almost 200 arrested.
Following the discovery of 72 bodies in northern Mexico, allegedly illegal immigrants heading for United States killed by one of the country’s main drug-cartels, Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed Thursday a new package of measures against money laundering to help fight organized crime.
The lion’s share (85%) of the gross profits from the cocaine business between South America and the United States ends in the wholesale and retail distribution network in the US according to Antonio Luigi Mazzitelli, head of the UN office on Drugs and Crime for Mexico and Central America.