Federal troops being sent into Rio to clean it of drug gangs before World Cup

Imagine that!  The drug lords and their gangs are so powerful in this Latin American country that troops have to be called in because the police force in Rio de Janeiro can't handle the violence.  One gotta wonder how it is that a police force let matters grow to this level of violence and lawlessness unless   the police force was a part of the drug business too. 

From Reuters:
....Brazil will deploy federal troops to Rio de Janeiro to help quell a surge in violent crime following attacks by drug traffickers on police posts in three slums on the north side of the city, government officials said on Friday.

Less than three months before Rio welcomes tens of thousands of foreign soccer fans for the World Cup, the attacks cast new doubts on government efforts to expel gangs from slums using a strong police presence. The city will host the Olympics in 2016.

Rio de Janeiro state Governor Sérgio Cabral met president Dilma Rousseff on Friday morning and asked for federal troops to be deployed to help stop the attacks on police units overseeing slums across Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city.

"They (gangs) want us to retreat, but with the help of the president and the federal government we will continue to advance," Cabral said after meeting with Rousseff and securing the dispatch of troops to Rio.

On Thursday night, shooting broke out between drug traffickers and police in a slum near the Manguinhos complex of shantytowns. Three policemen were shot and wounded, including the Manguinhos police chief, local media reported. The attackers set fire to and destroyed the local police post housed in a converted cargo container.

The gangs, made up mainly of drug traffickers, knocked down power lines during the attack, leaving Manguinhos in the dark.........