Brazil Police Arrest 11 Suspects in Animal Trafficking Ring

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Police on Friday, December 4th, arrested one of Brazil’s top wildlife traffickers and rescued about 200 animals set for illegal sale, officials said.

The Federal Police announced at a press conference that 14 arrest warrants had been issued and that 11 people had been arrested by midday.

The suspects are accused of illegally selling the animals through social media.

Some of the animals are endangered species captured in the Amazon rainforest, including macaws, toucans, monkeys and reptiles such as caimans.

Among those arrested is Roberto Augusto Martinez Filho, described by investigators as “one of the country’s leading animal traffickers.” Martinez Filho had previously been arrested in August in possession of two monkeys at his home, but was released pending trial.

Another suspect “had been involved in wildlife trafficking for 38 years and was in the process of handing over the business to his son,” the head of the Federal Police’s Environmental Crimes Unit, Sebastiao Pujol, told a press conference.

The arrests were part of an operation launched in May 2019 that has so far yielded evidence used by police to save 500 animals, including more than 200 on Friday.

In addition to the offenses of animal trafficking and criminal conspiracy, the suspects are also accused of “endangering public health” because some of the species they handled are carriers of zoonoses, or diseases and infections that are transmissible from animals to humans.

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