Former Brazil national team striker and Italian Inter Milan's Adriano Leite expressed his wish that God 'comfort the mothers' of those who died in the Penha and Alemao favelas in Rio de Janeiro, during a major police operation to dismantle the criminal drug gang 'Comando Vermelho'. The populous Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is experiencing hours of maximum tension, comparable to a war, due to the major operation carried out by the carioca police and the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE), entering the Penha Complex, where there were 64 deaths, two of whom were security personnel. In recent hours, the number of fatalities has increased to 132, and Adriano Leite, who was a world football star 20 years ago and now lives in the Penha Complex, expressed his pain over the situation. The former striker shared a photo of the corpses in the street brought down from the favela by the neighbors and commented: 'May God comfort all the mothers of Penha and Alemao'. Born in Rio de Janeiro in February 1982, the striker grew up in the Penha Complex and was an out-of-this-world player in his position at the turn of the century, wearing the shirt of teams like Inter Milan or Roma of Italy. He also stood out with the Brazilian national team and spoiled the final of the 2004 Copa America for Argentina in the Peruvian capital of Lima, scoring a dramatic goal that took the game to penalties where the 'Verdeamarela' was crowned champion. However, Adriano's career began to stall in 2004 with the death of his father, which eventually led him to depression, alcoholism and even being declared to have drug problems. After several conflicts in Italy, the striker returned to Flamengo in 2009 and from there he stayed in Brazil, where he began to be seen involved in problems in the favela such as photos with rifles, a motorcycle bought from a trafficker's mother, and finally, moving back to live in the Penha Complex.
