Brazil: Police Dismantle Country’s Largest Illegal Logging Ring

The Brazilian government issued 24 arrest warrants on Thursday as part of a three year criminal investigation into the country’s largest illegal logging ring, which authorities believe are responsible for the deforestation of around 10,000 hectares of amazon jungle forest during a two year period.

The total deforested area translates into US$94 million worth of environmental damages, IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency said on Thursday.

According to investigators, the illegal crime syndicate “operated as a business” through the use of sophisticated technology and shell companies to launder the money generated from the illegal logging operation.

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Authorities are still searching for Antonio José Junqueira Vilela Filho, who is accused of leading the criminal operation’s financial division, which he carried out by directing a complex web of illegal land purchasing schemes that involved falsifying information for chain of custody documents, all in order to cut swaths of forest with official documents.

Vilela Filho is currently wanted by Brazilian police for illegal land grabbing, criminal conspiracy, illegal logging, and profit concealment, owing the government around US$37 million in fines for crimes related to the destruction of the rainforest.

Meanwhile, as part of Operation Flying Rivers carried out by the Brazilian Federal police on Thursday, law enforcement officials discovered new methods of deforestation that logged the forest from beneath the tree tops and left a vegetation cover that “eluded” the satellite surveillance.

“The police found that among gang members were geoprocessing experts with satellite knowledge who would review data from the National Space Research Institute (INPE) and plan their logging activities,” Luciano Evaristo, head of Environmental Protection at IBAMA.

During Brazilian police raids in the states of Para, Matto Grosso and Novo Progresso, authorities discovered loggers living in slave-like conditions, whom were contracted in order to cut the forests with tractors and chainsaws. 

The illegal buying and selling of land in the Amazon is a deeply rooted practice in Brazil. Annual forest clearing in the Amazon has declined by roughly 75 percent from its mid-2000s levels, although it has edged up in the past year. 

Forest destruction, which is largely caused by land-clearing for cattle and other farming, is a major source of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

In 2012, Brazil enacted a law to protect forests and help establish clearer rules for the ranchers, soy growers and other producers who pushed into the Amazon rainforest and other sensitive regions in recent decades.