POLICE: JOURNALIST MURDERED BY DRUG LORD

Brazil: An undercover TV journalist reporting on crime and drugs in
Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns was tortured and put to death with a
sword by a drug lord who runs his territory like a medieval fiefdom,
police said Monday.

Tim Lopes of Globo television was captured June 2 as he tried to
infiltrate a dance party in the Vila Cruzeiro shantytown where gangs
sold drugs and staged illicit sex shows.

Lopes, 50, was taken to a nearby shantytown, Favela da Grota, where
he was shot in the feet, brutally beaten and killed with a
Samurai-style sword by drug baron Elas Pereira da Silva, known as
Elas Maluco, or Mad Elas, police said. Gang members then burned
Lopes' body.

Police confirmed details of the killing from two members of Silva's
gang who were arrested Sunday.