Brazilian police say drug lord killed investigative journalist

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- An undercover TV journalist reporting on crime and drugs in Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns was tortured and put to death with a sword by a drug lord who runs his territory like a medieval fiefdom, police said Monday.

Tim Lopes of Globo television was captured June 2 as he tried to infiltrate a dance party in the Vila Cruzeiro shantytown in northern Rio, where gangs sold drugs and staged illicit sex shows.

Lopes, 50, was taken to a nearby shantytown, Favela da Grota, where he was shot in the feet, brutally beaten and killed with a Samurai-style sword by drug baron Elias Pereira da Silva, known as Elias Maluco, or Mad Elias.