The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, determined on Thursday the immediate dispatch of federal experts to Rio de Janeiro to reinforce the investigations into the mega police operation that left 121 dead on Tuesday during the fight against organized crime in two favela complexes. Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski announced this. With the intervention of the Federal Police experts, the exclusivity of the local authorities of Rio de Janeiro over the investigation of the most lethal police operation in the history of Brazil is lifted. Lewandowski informed that 20 Federal Police experts, specializing in necropsies, ballistics, and DNA analysis, will be urgently deployed to the Fluminense capital. According to the minister, the measure was adopted after an emergency meeting headed by Lula and constitutes the first concrete result of the "extraordinary cabinet" created by the Government to speed up coordination between federal and state authorities. "The group will immediately present itself in Rio de Janeiro," declared Lewandowski, who added that between 10 and 20 additional specialists from the National Force may also be sent, depending on local needs. The minister explained that the dispatch of the contingent aims to accelerate the identification of the victims and the analysis of the crime scene, after the clashes this week during the police operation in the favela complexes of Alemao and Penha, north zone of Rio, against the criminal band Comando Rojo. "I just spoke with the governor of Rio de Janeiro Cláudio Castro."
