BRAZILIAN POLICE MAKE DRUG RAID

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Thousands of police swarmed into slums across
Rio de Janeiro state Friday, cracking down on the drug trade in the largely
lawless zones, officials said.

The operation came after violence between rival factions in the drug trade
left 17 people dead last weekend, but police denied the operation was
motivated by that fighting.

A police spokeswoman said the operation, ordered by state police chief Col.
Wilton Ribeiro, would continue indefinitely in the slums, known as favelas.

A few hours into the crackdown, police had arrested five people and
confiscated three guns, 10 small bags of marijuana and 70 packets of
cocaine. They did not give weights for the drugs.

Television footage showed police cars wending their way up narrow alleys
past the ramshackle, exposed brick shacks that line most of the hillsides
in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Police said 3,000 officers were entering 283
slums.

Brazil's largest television station, Globo, has used hidden cameras for a
series reports in recent weeks portraying brazenly open drug trade in the
slums.

Though Brazil is not considered a major producer of cocaine, it has been a
major transshipment point for the drug in smuggling operations to Africa
and Europe.

Government officials have vigorously denied reports suggesting Brazil has
become world's second-largest consumer of cocaine after the United States.