Civil police from the Environmental Protection Police Station (DPMA) launched, on Thursday (17), the “Operation Expurgo 2”, with the objective of dismantling a criminal scheme for illegal waste disposal in Duque de Caxias, Baixada Fluminense. The action was supported by other units of the Department General of Specialized Police (DGPE) and aims to fulfill search and seizure warrants against three people and three companies that would be directly linked to the gang.
The investigation began from communication by the State Environmental Institute (INEA) and the Military Police Environmental Police Command (CPAM), which denounced the existence of a possible land exploration scheme such as clandestine dumps. According to police, the criminal group occupied vacant land and fraudulently regularized the documentation of these areas, using oranges companies to obtain environmental licenses with the justification of performing only earthmoving.
However, according to investigators, the license was just a facade. In possession of the documentation, criminals marketed disposal “vouchers” at reduced prices with other companies, creating waste packages that would be illegally dumped. Practice transformed land into real open dumps, causing severe damage to the environment, public health and increasing the risk of flooding during the rainy season.
One of the main outbreaks of the investigation is an area near the Rio-Magé highway, where, according to the investigation, more than 2,700 vouchers were sold for waste disposal. At least nine companies launched their tailings on site. Some of them had already been identified during the first phase of Operation Expurgo, held on April 9, in the Rio de Janeiro Port Zone.
The Civil Police have not yet disclosed the names of the investigated or the companies involved, but the findings continue and new phases of the operation are not discarded. The repression of the scheme is expected to be alert to other companies that adopt irregular waste disposal practices.
DPMA stressed that activities such as this configure environmental crime, and those responsible may be responsible for damage to the environment, ideological falsehood, criminal association and money laundering.
This content was originally published in police offset operation against illegal dumps in Caxias on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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