Brazil: Police Dismantle Biggest Amazon Deforestation Gang
Brazil: Police Dismantle Biggest Amazon Deforestation Gang
by Indy Staff, 28 August 2014.
Brazilian federal police have undertaken an operation to disband the country’s largest Amazonian deforestation gang, who are alleged to have invaded enormous swathes of the rainforest, burnt them down, and then illegally sold lots to cattle ranchers and farmers.
Investigators value the environmental destruction they have caused to top US$220m, and the area affected includes the Jamanxin national park.
Operation Castanheira, or Chestnut, was mostly developed from the city of Novo Progresso in the Amazonian state of Pará, but extended over the states of Paraná, Matto Grosso, and São Paulo in the country’s south. Some 96 police officers and 19 prosecutors from the Brazilian Environment Institute (Ibama) were involved in the raids, which were a result of 22 search and 14 arrest warrants.
Those involved will be charged with the crimes of invasion of public lands, theft, environmental crimes, counterfeiting, criminal conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering. Sentences may total over 50 years in prison.
The operation has been hailed by environmentalists, who see it as a small battle won in the war on deforestation of the jungle, which grew 28% last year, according to Greenpeace.
http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/newsfromlatinamerica/brazil-police-dismantle-biggest-amazon-deforestation-gang/
(Short article, no more at link.)