Brazil deploys troops in anti-crime operation

The Defense Ministry says on its website that army, navy and air force personnel have been deployed along the frontiers with Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.

The ministry says that the operation is aimed at stemming the flow of drugs and arms and other contraband into Latin America's biggest nation.

The area to which the troops have been sent include the so-called Triple Border, the porous region where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina converge and that is home to drug and arms traffickers, smugglers and counterfeiters.