Mato Grosso police launch operation against illegal turtle trafficking

The Mato Grosso Civil Police launched Operação Iurará to dismantle a group suspected of the illegal hunting, slaughter, and commercialization of Amazon turtles and other chelonians. The operation targeted the Quelônios do Araguaia Wildlife Refuge and the Araguaia State Park.

Eight search and seizure warrants were executed across five rural properties in Ribeirão Cascalheira, Mato Grosso, as well as residential and commercial addresses in Goiânia and Aparecida de Goiânia, Goiás. Investigators identified a cosmetics entrepreneur and farmer as the primary suspect, alleging he leads a scheme involving his wife and employees to supply a clandestine market for wild game meat. The operation coincides with the critical nesting season of the Amazon turtle.

Other recent criminal developments in Brazil include the arrest of a Comando Vermelho leader in Paraguay who was being transferred to Mato Grosso, the arrest of a suspect in a plot to assassinate two police delegates in Piauí, and the capture of a man involved in the 26-year-old murder of journalist Josemar Araújo Baia in Rio de Janeiro.