Six alleged illegal logging cartel members arrested in Boyacá and Cundinamarca

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February 10, 2021 - Boyacá, Colombia

Six members of an alleged wood cartel were arrested and ten trucks including 1,400 timbers were seized. Operation Artemisa was carried out in the departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca. To transport the wood through the departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Tolima, the defendants allegedly used licenses granted by the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario ICA and the Corporación Autónoma Regional de Boyacá (Corpoboyacá) to farms owned by relatives of the alleged members of the cartel. Once the license for wood harvesting was granted, they acquired the native wood felled in Pauna, Briceño, San Pablo de Borbur, Tununguá and the Serranía de las Quinchas Regional Natural Park, transporting it to the farms that did have the license. Thus, they sought to give the appearance of legality to the procedures and from these places they processed the transport documents. The wood was mostly marketed in Bogotá.

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