REUTERS

Policemen patrol the Mangueira slum, with the Maracana Stadium in the background, during the inauguration of the Peacekeeping Unit Program in Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro - Police have arrested the alleged drug kingpin of Rio de Janeiro's largest slum ahead of a major crackdown, as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

The police said late Wednesday that they had arrested Antonio Bonfim Lopes - also known as “Nem” and “considered one of the most wanted criminals in Rio de Janeiro” - as the alleged drug trafficker tried to flee the area in a car.

Federal police earlier announced that two alleged drug traffickers were nabbed - “Peixe” and “Coelho,” the latter being Lopes's right-hand man.

At dawn Wednesday, dozens of special forces set up a checkpoint along the main road leading into the Rocinha “favela,” or slum, which has been a bastion of drug gangs for decades.

Police said Rocinha will become the 19th favela to be ridden of traffickers who have been in control for the past 30 years, and local media have ventured that a broader pacification operation will be launched over the weekend.

Built on a steep hillside overlooking the “Marvelous City,” and located between two wealthy neighborhoods, Rocinha is home to 120 000 people.

The neighboring Vidigal shantytown is also expected to be pacified soon. Since 2008, authorities in Rio, which has one of the highest murder rates in the country, have been in a race to restore security in the city before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, to be held in Brazil.

Local press reports and some residents said police were expected to make their move on Sunday.

But a security spokesman said: “We do not disclose ahead of time when police pacification units move” into the favelas.

He said police actions over the past two days were “routine operations.” Their aim, according to the daily O Dia, was to “snuff out drug trafficking” before an assault by security forces backed by commandos.

Some residents fled the favela Wednesday to seek refuge with relatives for fear of gun battles between police and drug gangs, media reported.

In another sign that the police assault was imminent, Nem had given a farewell party and imposed a curfew on Rocinha.

Police had offered a $2 858 reward for information leading to the capture of Nem, who reportedly had to be treated at a local health clinic after he drank liquor mixed with ecstasy at Sunday's farewell bash.

“From Thursday, everybody must stay home and children must not go to school. We are fearful because we don't know where to go. The only solution is to stay at home and pray,” one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the daily O Globo.

Critics of the police drive complain that drug traffickers have been given time to flee before security forces move in.

A year ago, some 2 600 troops and police backed by armor and helicopters occupied the Complexo do Alemao in a massive operation after a wave of attacks by drug traffickers on police stations and vehicles that left 37 people dead.

Endemic and chronic urban violence has long sullied the image of Rio, where more than 1.5 million people live in 1 000 slums spread throughout the city.

On Sunday, TV cameraman Gelson Domingos was shot in the chest while covering a shootout between special operations police and traffickers in another favela, Antares, and was declared dead at a local hospital.

Four suspected criminals were killed during the shootout, which lasted nearly one hour, and eight accused drug traffickers were arrested, according to police, who also seized weapons, ammunition and drugs.

More than 1.5 million people live in Rio's slums - about a third of the local population. - Sapa-AFP