Brazil’s Federal Police fight environmental crimes in Amazon

Investigating and repressing crimes against the environment, illegal mercury trade, criminal organization and association, the acceptance of illegal goods, smuggling, document forgery, and money laundering are the objectives of operation Hermes, launched this Thursday (Dec. 1) in seven Brazilian states.

According to the Federal Police and national environmental authority Ibama, spearheading the crackdown, the goal is to put an end to a criminal scheme of fraud in the system controlling the importation and trade of metallic mercury.

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The crimes are linked to the smuggling and concealment of mercury, a product destined to supply mines in the states of the Legal Amazon—Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Pará.

“The modus operandi of the cases of fraud identified and investigated is to enter false data into the system and sell fictitious virtual credits that cover up sales and transport of real mercury without a legal origin. The probes point to evidence of more than two tons of mercury traded illegally, to the detriment of Ibama’s control systems,” the police stated.

In the end, more than five tons of mercury credits without an origin are expected to be eliminated from the control system. “Under the control system, all the trade and use of metallic mercury in Brazil must occur in strict compliance with the law. This is vital for the implementation of the International Minamata Convention, ratified by Brazil on August 8, 2017, after approval by the UN,” the police added.

Warrants

Operation Hermes, an allusion to the name of the Greek god equivalent to Mercury for the Romans, is the largest operation to dismantle the illegal use of mercury in history. Agents are serving five preventive arrest warrants; nine temporary arrest warrants (up to five days), in addition to 49 search warrants in municipalities in the states of Mato Grosso, São Paulo, Goiás, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rondônia, including households, company headquarters, warehouses, and mining areas.

“In addition to the warrants, the sequestration and freezing of assets of the investigated has been ruled in an amount upwards of BRL 1.1 billion, corresponding to the calculated value of loss to the treasury,” the authorities added.