RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - An 80-year-old Brazilian woman was hailed as a hero on Wednesday after videotape she filmed from her apartment window led to the arrests of suspected drug dealers and corrupt police officers.
The woman, who is now in a witness protection programme, told the tabloid Extrathat she had shot more than 33 hours of video through a hole in her curtains and had tinted windows to avoid being seen.
The tapes show traffickers carrying assault rifles and pistols in plain daylight on the Tabajaras Steps, a passageway leading to a hillside slum near Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana Beach.
They also showed dealers bribing police officers and clients and young children snorting cocaine.
Rio state Security Secretary Marcelo Itagiba praised the woman's video work as "an act of courage and bravery by a Brazilian citizen who could not stand the violence situation any longer and decided to report it".
Police on Wednesday occupied the Tabajaras slum to search for six criminals appearing on the tapes, as well as concealed drugs and weapons.
They already have arrested 13 suspected drug traffickers and two police officers who were filmed receiving money from drug dealers.
Seven more officers are on the wanted list, Itagiba said.
Extra, which helped deliver the tapes to authorities and broke the story on Wednesday, said the woman accompanied the video with her own commentaries.
"Just look at all these machine guns coming over here. Damn banditry," she was quoted as saying.
On another occasion she said the traffickers were looking at her through binoculars.
Drugs gangs control many of Rio's slums, often wielding more firepower than the police. The slums frequently nestle alongside rich neighbourhoods in the mountainous seaside city.
