Brazil's king of deforestation dethroned in drive to beat land clearers
Brazil's king of deforestation dethroned in drive to beat land clearers
Arrest of Ezekiel Castanha shines new spotlight on financial crime and may help bring breakthrough in effort to protect Amazon rainforest
Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro
Monday 2 March 2015 02.00 EST
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Ezequiel Antônio Castanha (right), who is accused of illegally destroying tens of thousands of square kilometres of
Amazon forest, is arrested by federal police officers in Novo Progresso in the northern state of Pará, Brazil.
Photograph: Stringer/Brazil/Reuters
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For most of the past six years, Ezequiel Antônio Castanha had seemed a pillar of the community in the small Amazonian city of Novo Progresso. As the owner of a supermarket, hotel and car dealership, he provided more jobs than anyone else. Outside his municipality, few had heard of him. Neighbours described him as a “pessoa normal” (regular guy).
Today, however, the thick-set, middle-aged man sits in jail with a notoriety across Brazil as a Tony Soprano-like character whose businesses were used to launder money from one of the biggest land clearance syndicates ever uncovered.
Castanha was arrested last weekend, along with 15 associates, in what has been hailed as a major breakthrough for environmental enforcement. The local media have described the detainee as the “king of deforestation”. According to the environment ministry Ibama, he and his gang were responsible for about 10% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year.
Prosecutors are now asking judges to keep him in protective custody so that he cannot offend during what is expected to be a protracted legal process.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/02/brazils-king-of-deforestation-dethroned-in-drive-to-beat-land-clearers
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