Weekly Report - 18 September 2014 (WR-14-37)

José Mariano Beltrame, the secretary of public security in Rio de Janeiro state, told reporters on 17 September that he was “comfortable” with the state’s police chiefs, despite the revelation of a major extortion racket among officers in the western suburb of Bangu. Twenty-four officers have been arrested, among them the third-in-command of the city’s military police, Colonel Alexandre Fontenelle Ribeiro, for demanding payment from shopkeepers, motorbike taxis and private van and bus companies in order to turn a blind eye to legal infractions.