 Rio's poor communities, the favelas, had been neglected for decades and were considered outside the control of the State.Filling in this power vacuum were young drug traffickers, who patrolled the favelas with automatic weapons.In addition to drug selling, in certain favelas, traffickers were sexually exploiting minors from the community at their baile funk, sometimes forcing girls to put on explicit shows by having sex out in the open against a wall at these events.