The police operation is carried out with the precision of a military ambush: A dozen officers in camouflage leap from a truck and quickly take control of the blackmarket alleyways in a northern Rio suburb.
Within minutes, their human targets are rounded up — along with the “hostages” they are holding: birds, turtles, monkeys and reptiles.
This is Brazil’s war on animal smugglers, a fight against the raiders of the flora and fauna of Latin America’s most bio-rich nation. It’s a fight authorities say they are winning.
“Thanks to checks, we have cut the traffic in exotic animals on the market by 80 percent compared with last year,” said Lieutenant Marcele Figueiredo, a 28-year-old woman commanding Rio’s special environmental police battalion.
Created in 1983, the battalion counts 400 officers, six of them female — and it has no time to rest.
Each year in Brazil, 250,000 animals are grabbed and stuffed in bags or cages for sale, according to official statistics.
Animal trafficking ranks as the third most lucrative criminal activity in Brazil, after the sale of arms and drugs, police say.
It generates US$1 billion a year, according to an association called Renctas which is dedicated to fighting the trade.
Under Brazilian law, hunting and keeping any wild animal in captivity is prohibited except on a few rare farms with special authorization.
However, blackmarketeers keep an underground trade going, selling a green parrot or a toucan grabbed from its habitat for prices 10 percent of those being asked in legal shops.
“That price difference is what keeps the trafficking going,” Figueiredo said.
Every species is prey for Brazil’s poachers. Birds are most often sold, going for US$10 for an ordinary breed to up to US$10,000 for a Hyacinth Macaw, a beautiful blue parrot prized as a pet. The more endangered the animal, the higher its price.
About 40 percent of the trafficked animals are headed for Europe or North America. Brazilian buyers, though, also fuel the activity.
One man arrested for trying to sell a green parrot for the equivalent of a few dollars claimed he did not know he was breaking the law.
“I just wanted to get rid of it because it bites,” he said, before receiving a fine and being released on a promise of not offending again.
That bird and the other animals seized are taken to a state sorting center close to Rio, where they are put in quarantine.
About 8,000 animals a year arrive in the facility, many of them in pitiful condition.
“There is a huge diversity of species in Brazil and some very beautiful animals which people want to own. And it’s in the Brazilian culture to have all sorts of exotic animals at home,” said Daniel Marchesi, one of the center’s vets.
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