Brazilian Federal Police fight mercury smuggling
The Brazilian Federal Police, along with the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), are carrying out 34 search and seizure warrants in Operation Hermes (Hg) II, launched on Wednesday (Nov. 8). These warrants, issued by the First Federal Court of Campinas, cover cities in the states of Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.
The crimes under investigation are related to the smuggling and concealment of mercury, which ultimately supplies mines in the states that make up the Amazon region—Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Roraima, and Pará. All the evidence and seized goods will be sent to the Federal Police Station in Campinas for further analysis. A total of 140 federal police officers and 30 Ibama officials are participating in the operation.
The court has also imposed bail of 200 minimum wages and seized and made assets unavailable for the investigated parties in an amount exceeding BRL 2.9 billion, with the aim of compensating for environmental damage.
According to the police, the suspects will be held accountable, to the extent of their conduct, for environmental crimes, offenses against the environmental administration, ideological falsehood, use of false documents, smuggling, criminal association, receiving, endangering the life or health of others, as well as criminal organization, usurpation of federal assets, and asset concealment.
The operation
The Federal Police reported that Operation Hermes (Hg) I—launched on December 1, 2022—aims to dismantle the illegal use of mercury. It began with an investigation into a company based in Paulínia, São Paulo state, which was illicitly using its authorized activities to produce counterfeit mercury credits in the Ibama system.
"From the analysis of thousands of source bases, including documents and electronic devices, over a period of more than ten months, the police identified an extensive organized network of individuals and companies involved in the illicit scheme of trading mercury and gold extracted from mines in the Amazon. They successfully removed seven tons of mercury credits from the Ibama system," said the Federal Police in a statement.
Today's operation aims to deepen the investigation, seeking evidence of how this scheme operated, the involvement of individuals, especially the main actors in the illicit trade, and their respective final buyers of illegal mercury. It also aims to identify the assets established to conceal illegal activity and the profits derived from it.
