Favela fortresses Barricades used by gangs 'to put brakes on cops'

Deep in a mosaic of redbrick favelas on the fringes of Rio, a weapons dealer, a drug smuggler and a crime lord held court on a corner as darkness enveloped the streets they rule.

- Tom Phillips

An unnerving arsenal of assault rifles was on show as the trio fielded requests from customers, locals and staff, but the mood was relaxed.

The gunrunner sipped Coca-Cola and listened to Coldplay on one of his many mobile phones. A plasma television broadcast a Brazilian soap opera about the life of St Paul the Apostle. A gang accountant fingered wads of cash covering a plastic garden table below the screen, utterly unconcerned about being bothered by the police.

The group's laid-backness was largely the result of the numerous barricades designed to stop security forces from reaching their sanctuary in the favela: metal and concrete fortifications built by local crime bosses to give them time to escape police raids.

"They're there to put the brakes on the cops," the gunrunner said of the obstacles, an increasingly familiar feature of Rio's urban landscape as police and traffickers engage in a deadly arms race with no end in sight.

Near where the gangsters sat, a 3.5-metre trench had been carved out of the road, making it impossible for cars to pass.

Barricades first appeared on the roads leading into Rio's favelas in the 1980s, as cocaine and automatic rifles began flooding such working-class areas and drug lords sought to obstruct police incursions into their turf.