Rio’s police authorities have been establishing growing records as far as the seizure of illegal weapons is concerned. The vast majority of this being credited to the very active PMERJ – Polícia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Military Police). Taking into account the first four months of 2019 and rifles alone, an all-time, high-figure mark of 174 examples were captured. Included in the last (late April) batch of guns, most significantly, was an entirely working example of a .30-06 caliber Browning M1919 machine gun, which prompted this resident author to submit it to the POTD category.

The photo above, taken shortly after the completion of the successful operation carried out at the Complexo do Alemão community, shows the M1919 and some linked ammunition (partly, already fired) belts together with other items also captured there, including the more usual AK and AR platforms (plus 104 assorted magazines and ammo), no fewer than 42 fragmentation hand grenades, and a generous supply of cocaine.  Oh, yes: the Browning machine gun had a 200-round ammunition box apparently welded to its underside to act as a carry magazine. The insignia shown is that of PMERJ’s crack (no pun intended!) Batalhão de Polícia de Choque, the Shock Police Battalion.