Brazil gangbusters target elite police unit in widening corruption probe
Several members of Rio’s revered Special Police Operations Battalion taken down in ‘Operation Black Evil’.
Brazil’s ever-expanding corruption problem broke new ground Friday with charges that members of the country's most storied and supposedly untouchable police unit were taking bribes from drug traffickers.
Anti-organised crime and intelligence units carried out “Operation Black Evil” to arrest five members of Rio de Janeiro’s Special Police Operations Battalion, usually known by its acronym BOPE, the city prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Four men were quickly detained and one remained at large in Miami, Florida, Globo news site reported.
In addition to taking narco gangsters’ bribes in exchange for tipoffs on police operations, the BOPE agents provided weapons captured in other police raids, prosecutors said. More than US$20,000 was found in the house of one of the accused.
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The arrests were only the latest corruption scandal in Brazil, where dozens of high-ranking politicians and business leaders have been snared in a bribes and kickbacks probe at oil giant Petrobras, and impeachment proceedings are underway against President Dilma Rousseff.