Brazil police arrest drug trafficking boss in Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian police have arrested the drug trafficking boss of Rio de Janeiro’s City of God slum where a police helicopter recently crashed, killing four officers.

Rio de Janeiro’s police department said on Twitter that members of its Special Operations Battalion had arrested Edvanderson Goncalves Leite on Friday morning.

A helicopter on an anti-drug operation crashed in the slum on Nov. 19. The cause of the crash remains under investigation but police have said no bullet holes were found in the chopper or in the officers’ bodies.

Shootouts between police and gangs are frequent in Rio de Janeiro, but the shooting down of an aircraft is unusual. Gangs downed a military helicopter in Rio’s Morro dos Macacaos slum during a 2009 gunbattle.

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