FILE - Cattle walk along an illegally deforested area in an extractive reserve near Jaci-Parana, Rondonia state, Brazil, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Interpol and partners launched a global law enforcement effort Wednesday aimed at dismantling criminal networks behind illegal logging, timber trafficking and gold mining, which drive large-scale deforestation and generate billions in illicit profits each year.

The effort announced ahead of the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil will focus mainly on tropical forests in Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Peru.

“Criminals are making billions by looting the planet’s forests,” Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement. “The only way to stop them is through determined law enforcement action and strong international cooperation.”

This latest phase of the Law Enforcement Assistance Program to Reduce Tropical Deforestation was announced in Rio de Janeiro during the United for Wildlife Global Summit. It is led by Interpol, the international police organization that helps national authorities coordinate and share intelligence, together with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. It is funded by Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative.

The announcement follows a major crackdown in the Amazon Basin last week, when Brazilian police, supported by Interpol, destroyed more than 270 illegal mining dredges operating on the Madeira River. Authorities said the raids dealt a significant blow to criminal groups linked to gold-smuggling networks that span Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said illegal deforestation “weakens the rule of law and finances organized crime,” adding that the joint initiative seeks to ensure offenders are held accountable while supporting justice systems and local communities.

Launched in 2018, LEAP has evolved from mapping timber-trafficking routes to coordinating cross-border investigations and seizing millions of dollars in illicit wood and minerals. Interpol-led operations in Latin America have uncovered hundreds of environmental crimes, including the destruction of hundreds of illegal gold-mining dredges in the Brazilian Amazon and dozens of arrests across nine countries for logging and wildlife trafficking.

Its new phase expands that work to target illegal mining in the Amazon Basin, now a leading cause of deforestation and mercury pollution, and to enhance intelligence-sharing among enforcement agencies.

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