EDITOR'S NOTE: Translated from an announcement made December 6, 2007 in Mexico. Unable to establish link to article.
"45 people are being held that cut down trees in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Abel Barajas Ciudad de México (6 de diciembre de 2007)It is an operation without precedents, the federal government and local authorities dismantled in Michoacan two regional organizations dedicated to the illegal cutting of trees, to detain 45 people and secure 2,000 tons of wood, a historical amount.
The groups broken up are recognized as 'Los Ocostitlan' and 'Los Zorrillos,' that according to the PGR report cut down trees in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, mainly in the Ocampo and Agangueo municipalities.
According to investigators, these groups secretly transferred the wood to established sawmills in the neighborhoods of Hidalgo City, where they work with the raw material, and after collecting the product they finished in Jalisco, Mexico State and the Federal District.
The operation resulted as part of the program 'Zero Tolerance for Illegal Logging' announced by President Felipe Calderon past August, precisely in Michoacan, the State of his birth.
The large operation began yesterday at 8:00 a.m. with the search of 19 sawmills, after the judge of the first petition of raw material in the Hidalgo city district, granted an equal number of searches of the PGR, as the previous investigation 231/UEIDAPLE/2007.
The deployment in the neighborhoods of Hidalgo City was more than 600 agents from the Secretary of Hacienda, the PGR, The Federal Law Office for the Protection of the Environment, the Federal Forces of Support for the Federal Police, The Federal Agency of Investigation and the State Police.
Since Monday, official helicopters continued a series of fly overs in the zone to organize the logistics and yesterday, the federal forces and the state closed 25 road in ranches and in the district, with officials that lead the action.
After 18:00 hours, the payoff was 2000 cubic meters of wood, much of the wood in rolls, that are square pieces used to pack merchandise tightly for the majority.
An expert of Profepa explained that, for the type of logged wood, every cubic meter has the equivalent weight of one ton, that is why the confiscation found was at least 2000 tons.
'So that you have an idea of the operation, I will tell you that to obtain one cubic meter of wood, you need to knock down 20 adult trees that are 30 meters tall. Today (yesterday) in one place or sawmill there was 958 cubic meters of wood, in others there was 400, 150 and 160, the least amount in a sawmill was 50 cubic meters.'
'These people are affecting the Monarch Butterfly Reserve and lets hope with these actions they start becoming dissuaded,' said an official.
In the sawmills of the federal highway Hidalgo-Morelia City, also found were 15 moving trucks...
In total, 45 individuals were detained, that were transferred at night to Mexico City and taken...
The coming Friday, The Unit Specializing in Investigations of Environmental Crimes will define the legal situation."
This story is good news, right? Isn't this action a victory for your efforts? And didn't this take place while you were on the Crystal cruise?
Posted by: Lonnye | February 08, 2008 at 07:55 PM