ONEPortuguese authorities participated, in September, in the international operation ‘Madeira de Lei’, in the context of which they carried out, in the national territory, 234 inspection actions, aimed at networks involved in environmental crimes, illegal capture of wood, smuggling, tax evasion, money laundering and document fraud.

According to a joint press release, which the News by the Minute had access, more specifically, 102 road inspection actions were carried out for transporters of wood and derivatives and 14 inspection actions for containers in seaports.

The police initiative also resulted in the inspection of 118 operators in the trade and processing of wood and derivatives inspected and in the preparation of 12 notices of administrative offenses for violating the legal provisions in force.

In a total of more than 350 inspection actions that took place in the days of joint action in September, they were detected by investigators of irregularities in 17 companies (one in Italy, one in the Netherlands, three in Spain and 12 in Portugal). The competent authorities also opened a criminal case against one of these companies.

In addition to Portugal, these operational actions involved, at an international level, the police authorities of Brazil, France, Italy, Holland and Spain, as well as the Latin American project ‘El Pacto’.

This was the first time that the countries of origin and destination of the illegal timber trade joined forces in the coordinated inspection between the countries that sell the timber, according to the same communiqué.

“Inspection actions focus on different criminal activities used by criminal networks to facilitate the illegal trade in timber, including document fraud and bribery to disguise the origin or true species of the goods”, can be read in the same note.

In Portugal, the operation was under the responsibility of the National Republican Guard (GNR), in close collaboration with the Tax and Customs Authority (AT), the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), the Public Security Police (PSP ) and the Maritime Police (PM).

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