As feras do DRAE/ Rio's DRAE's women

Female drugs unit members on the frontline of Brazil's battle against slum gangs A police helicopter rattles through the skies over Rio, black-clad snipers poised at either side. Below, in the Morro da Mineira shanty town, locals scatter for cover, shop-fronts clatter noisily shut and nearly 200 rifle-toting police operatives begin sprinting up the steep hillside, among them Inspector Santos de Mello, a member of the anti-weapons and explosives unit, better known as DRAE.

Inspector Santos de Mello, one of the officers leading the charge, is a woman, part of a growing team of female police officers on the frontline of Rio's drug conflict, and an unlikely flag bearer for Brazil's feminist cause.

Mello, a 32-year-old gym enthusiast tasked with cracking down on Rio's drug traffickers with her silver Ruger assault rifle and 40mm Taurus pistol.

Among the women rising to the top of Rio's civil police is Marcia Beck, a 35-year-old mother of one who became DRAE's new police chief in April and describes herself as "a wife, a house-wife and a mother, like any woman".

Vieira was the first civil policewoman to receive a bravery award following a six-hour shootout in Coreia, one of Rio's most notorious and heavily armed slums, in which one of her colleagues was killed as well as a four-year-old child and 10 drug alleged drug traffickers.

De Mello, one of the newest members of DRAE, was also jubilant. "I enjoy operations. When we don't have them I feel unmotivated

Unidades femininas de agentes antidrogas na linha de frente contra traficantes em favelas do Rio.

O helicóptero da Polícia Civil sobrevoa o céu do Rio de Janeiro, com atiradoras de preto em cada lado. Abaixo, na favela do Morro da Mineira, as pessoas se protegem, lojas fecham as portas e cerca de 200 policiais operacionais armados de fuzis descem o morro, entre os quais a inspetora Santos de Mello, da unidade antidrogas e explosivos, a DRAE.

Mello, 32, carrega seu fuzil de assalto silver Ruger e uma pistola Taurus ponto 4o. Entre outras agentes, Márcia Beck, 35, tornou-se chefe do DRAE em abril.

Vieira foi a primeira policial civil a receber uma medalha por bravura, após aguentar um tiroteio de seis horas seguidas na Coréia, uma das mais perigosas favelas cariocas, onde uma colega foi morta juntamente com uma criança de quatro anos e dez supostos traficantes.