Operation to combat illegal logging executes 16 warrants in Maranhão.

Maranhao 247 - The Highway Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP-MA) conducted an operation to combat a criminal organization that illegally extracts timber from the Legal Amazon and other environmental preservation areas for charcoal production in the São Luís Metropolitan Region and eight other cities in Maranhão. The initiative aimed to execute 16 preventive and temporary arrest warrants. Six people were arrested preventively, including a tax inspector and two military police officers. Warrants were also issued for owners of charcoal depots and charcoal kilns.

Leidinaldo dos Santos Silva, Alci Lopes Viana, Renato Viana Santos, Carlos Magno Mota Everton, and José de Arimateia de Sousa were temporarily detained.

Civil police officers executed search and seizure warrants at the State Secretariat for the Environment and Natural Resources (Sema), in Calhau, São Luís. Documents from Sema related to administrative processes authorizing timber extraction on farms in Sucupira do Norte, Parnarama, Buriti, Santa Quitéria, and Caxias were seized.

In the capital alone, teams seized 32.580 kg of charcoal. In Barra do Corda and Fernando Falcão, the Military Police's Air Tactical Center destroyed charcoal production kilns, seizing dozens of bags of charcoal, as well as a stolen vehicle.