Federal Police dismantle illegal fishing ring

Operation Tangled-Up (Enredados in the original Portuguese, with a pun on “rede”, meaning both “[fishing] net” and “network”), launched by the Federal Police, disbanded today (Oct. 15) a ring involved in the process of issuing illegal industrial fishing permits.

According to the police, civil servants, fishing vessel owners, trade union representatives, and middlemen made up the organization, which has been probed over such wrongdoings as corruption and influence peddling. Their dealings took place at the Ministry of Fishing and Agriculture, in Brasília, and at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) in Santa Catarina.

In addition to granting licenses to non-compliant vessels, the organization would also block law-abiding vessels and ask their owners for bribes.

Altogether, 26 people were summoned to offer clarifications, and 61 search and seizure and 19 preventive detention orders were issued in seven states. The crackdown was carried out by 400 federal police agents and 20 Ibama officials.

One the facts investigated by the Federal Police involved illicit permits for the fishing of the mullet fish known locally as tainha (Mugil brasiliensis) in this year's season. Criminals charged as much as $25 thousand per vessel for the permit, with no regard for legal requirements.

Apart from illegal fishing, the investigation, conducted under the division for environmental crime repression of the Federal Police, also found forged documents used for getting the illegal fish into the market.

Seized in the operation were specimens of fishes threatened with extinction, which must not be the target of fishing, like the blue pointer (Isurus oxyrinchus), and the southern guitarfish (Rhinobatos percellens), plus 240 tons of fish illegally caught on several spots along the Brazilian coast. Goods seized total over $780 thousand.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira

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