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The photographer

A reporter who documented the results of a massive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has described how residents came back with disfigured remains of those who had died.

The victims "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness reported. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "completely mutilated", he explained. Many also had what appeared to be stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were coming in.

The photographer stated that security forces prevented journalists from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the operation were taking place.

"Police officers created a barrier and declared: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who grew up in the area, reported he succeeded to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he remained through the night.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants commenced searching the elevated terrain which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood organized the recovered bodies in a square - the documented evidence show the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of what occurred shook me profoundly: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The official of the state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was aimed at halting a gang referred to as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Originally, local officials stated that "60 suspects and four police officers" lost their lives during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 individuals have been killed.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has put the overall count of fatalities at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has succeeded to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs nationally, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "business partners".

The criminal group focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in weapons, gold, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the region, the government representative, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and described the four police officers who died during the operation as brave public servants.

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, the official supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said.

He further explained that the events had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It occurred of the counterattack they implemented and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The governor additionally stated that the victims shown by residents in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force further reported that military attire, vests, and firearms" had been removed from the bodies and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse