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(Image: COMMANDO VERMELHO)

Their country may be hosting the biggest sporting event on the planet, but that hasn't stopped this menacing Rio drug gang from using social media to boast about their arsenal of deadly weaponry.

Clutching huge guns while striking nonchalant poses, it appears the Brazillian gangsters are showing off their fire power before the 2016 games kick off on August 5.

The images were shared on the Twitter page of Comando Vermelho – a notorious drug cartel which controls large swathes of Rio's slums.

The vicious gang, also known as the Red Command, use their own private armies to provide security and "dispense" justice.

(Image: TWITTER) (Image: TWITTER)

Some images show the bloodier side of the gang, with some boasting about clashes with Brazilian police.

Others show mounds of what appear to be bags of drugs and a pipe-smoking gangster proudly flaunting his handgun.

In another picture an innocent 15-year-old is seen flicking the V-sign with a machine gun dangling around his neck.

And four young gangsters are pictured smiling as they jubilantly hold rifles and handguns in the air, alongside the caption: "It started at 16-years-old".

Many tweets include the caption "weak, us never".

And some make references to God.

(Image: TWITTER) (Image: TWITTER)

(Image: TWITTER)

For the millions living in the city's most dangerous favelas, drug traffickers and criminals armed to the teeth with assault rifles and handguns is commonplace.

But for the 500,000 of sports fan descending on the city next month, the pictures - taken just weeks before the games - are hardly reassuring amid a backdrop of security fears.

The city is struggling to grapple with the dual dilemma of worsening public security while teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Many residents in the favelas – slums within urban areas of the country – say fighting between police and gangs has escalated in recent months, with murders increasing 15% last year.

Authorities claim they have a plan to keep the violence at bay, vowing to deploy more than 85,000 police officers and troops for the games.

But Luisa Cabral, a community activist in one of Rio's biggest favelas, told 22 News the war between gangs and police is getting worse.

She said: “Today we live in the middle of a crossfire, caught in a war that isn’t our own.”

(Image: TWITTER)

(Image: TWITTER)

(Image: TWITTER)

It's not just Brazil's poorest who get caught up in the gang warfare, Brazil's Olympic athletes have had some near misses of their own.

Shockingly, Germany's Olympic sailing team trainer Max Groy had a brush with death after a hail of bullets came raining down merely 20 metres away.

He said: "Actually, I went to the gas station and was just meters away and a gunfight started! So all of the sudden everybody started running at the gas station and hiding behind things.

"So I thought well, that might be time to just lay flat in the motor boat and hide as well. So that’s what I did and apparently the bullets came down just 20 meters away and hit the walls and the water."

(Image: TWITTER)

The Red Command regularly clashes with rival gang Terceiro Comando, which are locked in a power struggle for control of the slums.

It is believed the group bolster their ranks by using social media and a popular style of funk music named "booty music" to attract new Brazilian youth.

Their social media posts have been commented on by young people, who appear to be keen supporters of the group.

Yet the trend of displaying their is likely to cause anxiety among sports fans attending the games and the ordinary Brazilian families who have suffered at the hands of organized crime.

According to a 2008 study by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the gang controlled 38.8% of the city's most violent areas.