(9 Dec 2016) An Italian tourist was killed Thursday in a favela near the center of Rio de Janeiro in an area fought over by rival drug trafficking gangs, police said.
Authorities identified the dead man as Roberto Bardella and said another Italian tourist, Rino Polato, was found unharmed at an entrance to the Morro dos Prazeres favela early in the day.
The men were touring South America on motorcycles that were found in the favela, officials said.
Investigators believe the Italians got lost in the favela as they were leaving the Christ the Redeemer statue and headed to the beach.
Bardella was also wearing a camera on his helmet, investigators said, which might have led criminals who shot him to believe he was a police officer gathering evidence.
Investigators said that the drug dealers than held Polato who was unharmed, and Bardella's body for two hours until the local drug lord ordered them to release the men at the entrance to the slum.
The city's pacification effort has a police station in the slum, but the program has been deeply affected by budget cuts amid a financial crisis for the Rio de Janeiro state government.
Police have been attacked in the favela several times in recent years.
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