Brazil has waged a concerted war against gangs in Rio, where the final of the 2014 World Cup will also be played, with nearly 20 slums occupied in the last three years.

The Rocinha was one of the most notorious favelas, and its occupation marks a significant landmark, carried out without need to fire a single shot.

"I have the pleasure to inform you that Rocinha and Vidigal [a neighbouring favela] are under our control," Alberto Pinheiro Neto, the chief of military police, told a news conference.

"There were no incidents and no shots were fired."

Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral said that it was "an historic and emotional day for all of Brazil and principally for Rio.

"We are rescuing this population which needs peace – people want to live in dignity and a life of dignity requires peace."

Rocinha was widely considered as the main drug distribution point in Rio, and José Mariano Beltrame, the State's Security Secretary, said: "What started today does not have a finish date.

"This is one of the biggest favelas of the Americas and maybe of the world, what we have achieved is the liberation of these people from the rule of the gun."

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