Brazilian soldiers patrol the Lins slum complex during an operation to install a Pacifying Police Unit in Rio de Janeiro (AP)

Police have occupied a group of adjacent favelas in Rio de Janeiro, the latest slum "pacification" aimed at driving out drug traffickers and improving security in the coastal city.

Colonel Luis Castro Menezes, commander of the military police in Rio, says not a single shot was fired during the 50-minute operation today involving 590 police officers and 180 military troops in the Lins de Vasconcelos slums in the city's north.

The slums include 12 communities with about 15,000 inhabitants.

Authorities plan to install two permanent police stations in the slums as part of the city's "pacification" programme.

Television images showed the zone's commercial section opening today without incident and inhabitants going about their regular business.

With the two new stations, Rio now has 36 Police Pacification Units in its slums.

AP