Heavily armed police on Wednesday entered the Alcacuz prison where 26 inmates were butchered in recent days and separated members of rival drug gangs waging a turf war that set off a wave of riots in Brazil's overcrowded penitentiary system.
About 220 gang members will be transferred in buses from the Alcacuz penitentiary in the state of Rio Grande do Norte to another prison at Parnamirim, outside the state capital, Natal, authorities said.
Brazil has been hit by a wave of deadly gang clashes in prisons in the north and northeast regions of the country since the start of the year. At least 140 inmates have been killed in the violence, many decapitated or mutilated.