RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Four Brazilian police officers have been removed from street duty in an investigation into their involvement in a deadly raid in a low-income part of Rio de Janeiro that killed seven suspected drug traffickers and also left one resident dead, authorities said Friday.
The decision follows preliminary analysis of Wednesday’s operation in the Prazeres favela, in central Rio near the bohemian neighborhood of Santa Teresa, which found the “improper use” of body cameras, Rio state’s military police said in an email to The Associated Press. They did not elaborate on what was meant by improper use, or whether they may have been switched off during the raid.
The officers involved were transferred from operational duty to administrative activities to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation by the military police internal affairs division, police said.
The raid killed Claúdio Augusto dos Santos, a suspected drug trafficking leader in the notorious crime group Red Command. It also killed six other suspected drug traffickers and one resident.
Suspected associates of the gang retaliated by setting fire to a bus and blocking roads, leading to five arrests for acts of vandalism.
Some 150 military police officers were involved in Wednesday's operation, which targeted the sprawling urban communities of Prazeres, Fallet, Fogueteiro, Coroa, Escondidinho and Paula Ramos.
Last year, a huge raid against Red Command resulted in more than 120 deaths in Penha and Complexo de Alemao favelas, the most lethal in Rio’s history. The death toll sparked protests and calls for Gov. Cláudio Castro’s resignation.
Red Command has more than doubled its presence since 2023 and criminal gangs are now active in nearly half of the Brazilian Amazon’s municipalities.
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Firefighters work to extinguish a bus fire that was set ablaze by drug traffickers during a police operation in the Morro dos Prazeres community in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Military police patrol during a police operation in the Morro dos Prazeres community in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Military police patrol during a police operation in the Morro dos Prazeres community in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
President Donald Trump said his administration was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the United States announced it was sending more warships and Marines to the region and Iran threatened to attack tourist sites worldwide.
The mixed U.S. messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the U.S. stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The war, meanwhile, has shown no signs of abating.
Israel said Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, which is home to major oil installations. The defense ministry said there were no injuries or damage.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members in the region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
The Israeli military said early Saturday it was striking targets in Tehran.
The announcement came shortly after the military said it had begun a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah positions across the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon.
Hours earlier, the army renewed evacuation warnings for seven neighborhoods in Beirut’s suburbs, prompting some residents to fire gunshots to alert families who had returned to flee.
No casualties were immediately reported.
The airline’s CEO said the company is also preparing for oil to not return to $100 a barrel until the end of next year.
Scott Kirby said in a message to United employees on Friday that jet fuel prices that have more than doubled in the last three weeks already would cost the airline $11 billion a year if they remain where they are now.
The price of Brent crude has zigzagged from roughly $70 per barrel before the Iran war began to as high as $119.50 this week.
Of United’s worst-case assumption, Kirby said, “I think there’s a good chance it won’t be that bad, but ... there isn’t much downside for us to preparing for that outcome.”
Members from Kataib Hezbollah attend the funeral of their colleagues who were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Qaim province, according to their statement, in Najaf, Iraq, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (Ronen Zvulun, Pool Photo via AP)
Israeli security forces inspect an apartment struck by an Iranian missile that killed two people in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A bride and her family in the midst of a wedding photo session take cover in a bomb shelter after an alert from Israel's Home Front Command warned of missiles fired from Iran toward central Israel, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People take shelter in an Underground tunnel as air raid sirens signal a warning of incoming Iranian missiles in Jerusalem, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
