Recently Brazil’s city of Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympics. Now police are stepping up efforts to beat the drug traffickers in the slums ahead of the games.

Police seize drugs and weapons in Rio de Janeiro's 'favelas' after a weekend of unrest.

The raid is part of increasing efforts to clean up the shantytowns in one of the world's most violent cities.

Hundreds of drug traffickers from rival gangs plunged the city into chaos leaving at least 24 people dead.

Gang members even shot down a police helicopter, killing three officers.

Just two weeks after the city was awarded the 2016 Olympics parts of Rio resemble a war zone.

The city put on a slick campaign to downplay its security problems promoting a beach and Carnival image.

The country's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised nearly $60 million to help the city's police force.

[Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian President]:
"We know that it is going to take some time before we start to solve the violence problems of the gangs, the organized crime and the drug traffickers. We've offered all the help that Rio de Janeiro's governor will need."

Rio's poorer districts have been in the hands of drug gangs for several years.

Critics blame the government's lack of attention to security in the past.

There are around 1,000 slums spread throughout the city, some neighbor Rio's richest districts.

Many have no sewage systems, clean water or even electricity.

One sociologist says the poor living conditions are part of the problem.

[Julita Lemgruber, Sociologist]:
"We need to invest in prevention. We need to get the police inside these places and also offer services to the population inside. We need more health, more education and more sanitation."

More than one million slum dwellers are stuck in the middle of this brutal war.

There are shoot-outs almost every day between police and the heavily armed gangs.

Many residents believe the police alone can't solve the problems.

[Isaias Aguiar, Rio de Janeiro Resident]:
"Actually, the government has to play a role. If it thinks it can tackle violence with violence, there'll be no solution."

Police are still searching for those behind the weekend's attack—one of the worst in the city in recent months.