- Between June 23 and July 6, 2025, police forces from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru joined forces in a cross-border law enforcement initiative targeting environmental crimes like illegal mining, wildlife trafficking and illegal logging.
- Coordinated by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior, Operation Green Shield led to more than 90 arrests and the seizure of assets worth more than $64 million. Authorities also rescued more than 2,100 live animals and recovered 6,350 dead specimens.
- Reactions among local communities were mixed. While some locals were involved in illicit activities, others condemned the environmental destruction and feared reprisals from armed criminal groups operating in their territories.
- Although the operation disrupted environmental crimes, experts warn the offenses may shift to other areas. They stress the urgent need for sustainable development alternatives to address the root causes driving illegal activities in the Amazon.
MEXICO CITY – About two dozen police officers, government officials and a data specialist sat side by side in a command center in northern Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. For two weeks, they reviewed live camera footage and tracked geolocations of police actions that were part of Operation Green Shield, a field initiative targeting cross-border environmental crime across the Amazon Rainforest.
Criminal groups engaging in destructive, illicit activities have expanded across vast stretches of the Amazon over the past decade. They move largely unimpeded across national borders within the Amazon Rainforest, where state presence is often weak and government efforts remain fragmented and siloed. Between June 23 and July 6, 2025, Operation Green Shield relied on cross-border cooperation and technology to target illegal mining, wildlife trafficking, poaching, illegal logging, fuel smuggling and illegal waste. Yet environmental crime continues to proliferate across the Amazon Basin, experts warn.
The operation deployed more than 1,500 police officers across the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They made more than 90 arrests and more than 350 coordinated simultaneous raids, seizing assets worth more than $64 million.
Police seized more than 310 tons of raw minerals and 61 tons of calcium oxide (used to separate metal from ores) from illegal mining sites. They recovered more than 2,100 live animals and 6,350 dead specimens, including birds, lizards and mammals. The National Police of Peru told Mongabay they had seized lizard heads, yellow-spotted river turtles (Podocnemis unifilis), Andean foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus), caimans, parrots, sloths and other species. Across the four countries, police confiscated more than 3,800 cubic meters (134,000 cubic feet) of illegal timber, more than 148,000 liters of smuggled fuel (about 39,000 gallons) and 530 units of equipment like bulldozers, trucks, crushers and other vehicles.
The effort was coordinated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Interior, as part of the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate Change (I2LEC), a joint global platform launched in February 2023 in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to strengthen global law enforcement responses to environmental crimes and climate-related threats.
A new approach to environmental crime
“We wanted to do things differently,” says Dana Humaid, lieutenant-colonel and director-general of the International Affairs Bureau at the UAE Ministry of Interior and coordinator of I2LEC.
Spanning more than 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres), the Amazon Basin covers nine countries. Humaid says that unlike traditional law enforcement, which often operates with “a tunnel vision” and compartmentalizes, Green Shield promoted collaboration across more than 50 law enforcement agencies and engaged with the private sector and civil society too. “We are learning as we go,” she adds.
The UAE is trying to position itself as a leader in environmental security to enhance “its global influence and reputation as a proactive, responsible global actor,” Rashed Saeed Al Eissaee, deputy director of the International Operations Department at the International Affairs Bureau at the UAE Ministry of Interior, tells Mongabay.
Using web-based geospatial software ArcGIS allowed police officers “to create a common ground” by integrating intelligence data in different formats, languages and sources, says Caio Riebold, national government solution engineer for the Americas at Esri, the U.S. multinational behind the software. The software helped gather intelligence and improve safety and response actions in the field by building a system of records, analytics and engagement, says Riebold, who supported the implementation of ArcGIS during the operation. The Amazon poses unique challenges for technology adoption, with dense cloud cover and thick forest canopy often interfering with GPS signals. However, ArcGIS is designed to function even without connectivity. “Some teams did not have internet access during the operation,” Riebold says, but “we’re used to that.”
Via the ArcGIS application, officers could share their locations and send reports, including pictures, which showed up on the live dashboards in Bogotá. Technology played a key role, according to Diego Jiménez Salcedo, police lieutenant colonel and head of the Department of Strategic Operational Coordination within Ecuador’s National Police. “We learned to leverage technology … through ArcGIS, we could follow field operations live, minute by minute,” he says.
Close collaboration between neighboring Amazonian countries was also essential, Jiménez Salcedo says. “We formed an extremely dynamic work team, sharing experiences,” he says. Criminal groups have logistical capacities that transcend borders; “we need the same,” he adds.
“Operating together from the same command center allowed us to articulate strategies in real time, anticipate criminal movements and optimize our response times against environmental crimes in border areas,” Aaron Ancho Álvarez, police major with the Unit against Organized Crime of the National Police of Peru, says in a written response to Mongabay.
A hotspot for environmental crimes
Environmental crime in the Amazon has surged over the past decade, says Bram Ebus, founder and co-director of Amazon Underworld, a collaborative media alliance focused on the Amazon. He says geopolitical crises, like the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, have contributed to rising gold prices, which saw a 26% spike in the first half of 2025, intensifying pressures to extract gold in the Amazon and elsewhere. “The Amazon has become much more important to control; we see more fights [over territory control],” Ebus says.
Non-state armed groups or crime syndicates are active in about 70% of Amazon municipalities studied by Amazon Underworld in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. “Organized crime in the Amazon Basin operates across borders as if they don’t exist, even setting an example for governments on how to collaborate. Environmental crimes always include cross-border movements of people, goods, money and even environmental impacts,” Ebus says.
While Operation Green Shield covered a broad range of environmental crimes, it did not target drug trafficking. Jiménez Salcedo says drug trafficking operations are complex and handled separately by anti-narcotics units. However, Humaid says plans are underway for a dedicated cross-border operation.
Divided communities
The communities living in the Amazon Basin are the ones most directly affected by environmental crimes.
Extractive economies “leave traces that lead to the extermination of ecosystems, affecting the very life of Indigenous people, since we depend on our ecosystems … on everything our Mother Earth gives us,” says Mónica Chuji Gualinga, a Kichwa Indigenous woman and deputy director for Latin America at the nonprofit Indigenous Peoples Rights International.
“But it’s not only us, Indigenous people. The entire planet, all human beings, depend on our ecosystems. We must protect Mother Earth,” she adds.
Chuji Gualinga is especially concerned about mining and the use of chemicals like mercury. “Communities are left with the environmental liabilities, with all the damage caused by the mining,” she explains. “After the mining is abandoned, the people in the communities remain there — drinking the water and eating the fish contaminated with mercury,” she adds.
“We are at very high risk of disappearing if we don’t protect ourselves and our land,” she tells Mongabay.
“During Operation Green Shield, local communities played a fundamental role by providing valuable information about activities affecting natural resources. This collaboration was key in establishing the background for the intelligence and investigative work carried out by the National Police,” the Directorate of Carabineers and Environmental Protection at Colombia’s National Police says in a written response to Mongabay.
Likewise, the environment directorate at the National Police of Peru wrote to Mongabay that “native communities expressed their agreement with the police operations, acknowledging that they contribute directly to the protection of their ancestral lands and the preservation of the Amazon rainforest.”
However, standing up against extractive activities comes with risks. In 2022, 39 land and environmental defenders were killed in the Amazon, amounting to one in five of all global killings of environmental defenders, according to Global Witness.
A local resident in an area covered by the operation declined to comment after a community member was killed weeks after the operation ended.
“Indigenous leaders are at extremely high risk of criminalization, assassinations and disappearances due to the stance they take in defense of their territories,” Chuji Gualinga says.
While some Indigenous people actively protest extractive activities, others are sometimes co-opted or used to participate in environmental crimes.
The Colombian National Police notes that “in some of the areas that were intervened, there was opposition [by local communities] to the operations. “In some places, the local population was also involved in illicit activities,” Riebold tells Mongabay.
Criminal groups often exert control over local communities by luring, coercing or threatening residents, Ebus says. These groups use communities to hide their activities and, at times, to gain political legitimacy. “You need the community on your side. Sometimes criminal groups understand that better than governments,” Ebus explains.
Chuji Gualinga adds that communities may be coerced to allow armed groups to mine in exchange for small payments and royalties, as most of the profits go to armed groups.
She partly blames the government for neglecting Indigenous communities in the Amazon. “Communities, pressured by the economic situation, are sometimes forced to engage in these illegal activities, where they face a high risk of death, because they also have no job security, in addition to the destruction of their livelihoods and ecosystems.”
She hopes for more state presence to fight criminal groups in the Amazon, but says that any military incursions on Indigenous lands should happen in coordination with Indigenous authorities.
Ebus stresses that targeting the masterminds and financiers of environmental crime is crucial. He says cracking down on local populations that are exploited by criminal groups can break trust between vulnerable Amazon communities and state authorities.
Jiménez Salcedo says Green Shield aimed to engage closely with local communities.
In Brazil, Adriana de Araújo Correia, chief of the Integrated Operations Division at the International Police Cooperation Center in the state of Amazonas says her officers are used to working in Indigenous territories and “always seek to be as nonintrusive as possible.” She says they aim for police efficiency while respecting local communities, in order “for our work to be legitimate.”
Country experiences
In Brazil, where almost 60% of the Amazon Rainforest lies, operations occurred in Mato Grosso and Amapá provinces. “There is a need for this kind of collaborative work,” Araujo Correia says.
In June, the Federal Police in Brazil officially launched the Center for International Police Cooperation in the Amazon in Manaus to boost regional collaboration in combating environmental crimes. Araujo Correia says the center, currently under testing, is necessary because “there is no way to combat environmental crime individually.”
In Colombia, Green Shield covered seven departments, resulting in 15 arrests and the seizure or destruction of criminal assets worth more than 124 billion pesos (about $30.2 million), according to Colombia’s National Police. The police also seized 103 cubic meters (3,637 cubic feet) of illegally sourced timber, a common environmental crime in Colombia. During the operation, Colombian police discovered illegal extraction methods and clandestine infrastructure, such as an illegal refinery and ponds, previously undetected.
Ecuador deployed about 200 police officers. “It was the first time we did an operation like this with other Amazonian countries,” Jiménez Salcedo says.
In Peru, the National Police rescued about 1,400 live animals and dismantled a major wildlife trafficking network, known as the Predators of the East. More than 30 operations were executed across the country, according to the environment directorate at the National Police of Peru.
In 2024, illegal gold exports from Peru reached a record high of $6.8 billion, up by 41% from the previous year. To tackle this, the government is planning to formalize mining, eradicate illegal mines and ensure environmental recovery in mining areas.
Rodolfo García Esquerre, high commissioner for the fight against illegal mining in Peru, says operations like Green Shield are necessary, but “not the solution by itself.” He says more than a decade of eradication efforts have not given the expected results; rather, mining has continued to grow. He argues that it is not just about eradicating mines but also about finding sustainable economic alternatives for local populations. “Because, otherwise, what are they going to live from?”
Overall, Ebus is hopeful that Operation Green Shield could be part of a new chapter of cross-country cooperation in the Amazon, but he says the scale of it remains “water under the bridge” compared with the amount of environmental crime in the region.
The Colombian National Police acknowledges challenges “such as differences in legal procedures, regulations and operational capacities among the participating countries, which can hinder the synchronization of actions and the speed of decision-making.” However, they see the operation as an opportunity to learn from each other’s approaches and protocols.
Law enforcement needs to continue
Experts warn that environmental crimes often shift locations after enforcement actions. “It’s a cat-and-mouse problem where organized crime keeps escaping,” Ebus notes.
Humaid says environmental crimes keep popping up in new places, “because each crime is linked to the other.”
For Ancho Álvarez from Peru’s National Police, this crime displacement phenomenon “is common when criminal hotspots are weakened, prompting offenders to relocate to less-controlled areas.” It’s important to sustain law enforcement actions over time, ensure permanent police presence and coordinate with social programs and alternative development projects, he tells Mongabay.
“It’s not just about the police moving in to intervene in these communities,” Jiménez Salcedo says. The state must be present to educate local communities and ensure more dynamic local economies. “It’s not only operational, but it’s also about social and community work,” he says.
Given local communities’ roles in illicit activities, Ebus argues for rebuilding trust through investments in health, education and infrastructure.
Jiménez Salcedo says patrols need to be maintained in areas with environmental crimes. He maintains that destroying the machinery and equipment used in criminal activities is “a heavy blow” because “without it, they cannot operate.”
“Criminal groups are very fast and fluid,” says Araújo Correia. “The only way to beat them is by cooperating, and by ensuring state presence. We cannot wait for the Amazon to reach the point of no return.”
Jiménez Salcedo says Ecuadorian police now have a slightly broader vision for fighting environmental crime, and they will continue participating in operations like Green Shield. “And now we have these new contacts and tools. We don’t have to wait for another operation to continue working on this.”
Banner image: Forces part of Operation Green Shield destroy illegal mining equipment found in Brazil. Image courtesy of the UAE Ministry of Interior.
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