A multinational police operation in Latin America has resulted in a successful crackdown on one of the most destructive forms of environmental crime in the region.
Dubbed Operation Madre Tierra VII and carried out by Interpol's Central America bureau, the operation spanned nine countries. It resulted in 225 arrests for environmental crimes and new investigations into illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and gold mining, as reported by the Associated Press.
Over 400 cases of environmental crime in these categories were uncovered by Interpol through this operation, with the majority involving forestry violations and rampant wildlife smuggling.
The latter of these saw a variety of contraband seized by Interpol during the crackdown, including live birds, reptiles, turtles, primates, and big cats; about 2.4 tons of shark and ray fins; almost 1,930 pounds of the critically endangered totoaba; and over 15 pounds of dried sea cucumber.
Officials also confiscated several hundred pounds of illegally harvested timber, ranging from pine to oak to even cedarwood, an ongoing issue in some of the region's most prominent nations.
The operations also highlight how these organized crime networks are becoming increasingly transnational, as communications between these crime syndicates have reached as far as Europe and Asia, according to the AP.
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"These low-risk, high-profit crimes now provide financing for armed groups and thrive on corruption at multiple levels," said Oscar Soria, chief executive of The Common Initiative, an environmental think tank, per the AP.
"What's urgently needed is a structural response — not just arrests, but stronger governance, better regional coordination and efforts to reclaim territories where criminal networks fill the void left by the state."
While successful crackdowns such as these are to be celebrated for tackling the persistence of environmental crime, they also underscore what more must be done to tackle these criminal networks head-on and continue implementing greater protections for at-risk species and defending our forests from harmful or dangerous human activity.
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