Members of the Rio de Janeiro state police practice their anticrime tactics. SCREENGRAB FROM FACEBOOK PAGE OF POLICIA MILITAR DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Rio de Janeiro drug dealers are taking the middle word in the Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger” seriously.
Police seized marijuana in a city slums labeled with the logo of the Rio 2016 organizing committee responsible for staging the Games in August, officials said Tuesday.
Pictures circulating on Brazilian social media showed the logo — a swirly rendering of Rio2016 above the five Olympic rings — emblazoned next to price tags on packets of the drug.
The surprising find took place last week in the Nova Holanda favela, police anti-narcotics commander Felipe Curi told AFP.
“They had the Olympic Games logo stuck to the packets of the drugs that we seized,” he said.
Rio police are fighting powerful drug gangs based in the city’s favelas ahead of the Games, the first ever to be held in South America.