Brazil arrests 63 police officers on gang-related crimes

Brazilian authorities arrested here 63 military police officers and 11 alleged drug dealers Tuesday on charges of crimes including drug trafficking, corruption and kidnapping, official sources said. All the officers, who worked at the same police battalion in Duque de Caxias in Rio de Janeiro State, were arrested in a crackdown on corruption amid rising crimes in major cities. They reportedly helped drug-trafficking gangs that plague the region smuggle weapons in exchange for bribes. Corruption within Rio's police force is not new, but the push to root out corrupt elements is. Commander of the battalion Lt. Col. Claudio Lucas Lima was replaced, officials said. Honest policemen "will no longer be humiliated by the misconduct of a few," said Col. Erir Ribeiro da Costa Filho, commander-general of Rio's military police. Both Filho and Rio's Public Security Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame expected the arrested officers to be expelled from the force, given the amount of evidence against them. "There's no way they won't be fired, and we want that to happen very fast," Beltrame said.