Officials Arrested for Amazon Logging - AP

Officials Arrested for Amazon Logging


Saturday March 3, 2007 12:01 AM

By PETER MUELLO

Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Brazilian police arrested 18 people accused of allowing
illegal logging in the Amazon rain forest and were searching for 19 others, including
environmental protection agents, the environment minister said.

Marina Silva told Agencia Brasil, the official government news agency, that Friday's
operation by federal police and environmental officials was aimed at ending violations
of government rules limiting deforestation of the vast rain forest in the eastern
Amazon state of Para.

The suspects include loggers, members of the environmental protection agency, Ibama,
and government workers of the Para state Finance Department and the Department of
Science, Technology and the Environment, Agencia Brasil reported.

-snip-

Para is a notoriously corrupt state. On Feb. 12, 2005, 73-year-old nun Dorothy Stang
of Dayton, Ohio, was gunned down in Para, where she spent years trying to protect
poor Amazon residents from ruthless loggers and developers.

-snip-