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On Thursday morning (22), the Federal Police launched Operation Santana Raptor, which investigates fossil trafficking in the Chapada do Araripe region, in southern Ceará. The scheme has been in effect since 2017. 19 search and seizure orders are being executed, 17 in Ceará and 2 in Rio de Janeiro. A professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) is among those suspected of joining the criminal organization.
According to the PF, the investigated scheme consists of the illegal extraction and commercialization of fossils by quarry workers in the municipalities of Nova Olinda and Santana do Cariri, where two men were arrested. One of them would be among the main fossil traders between 2017 and 2020, and the second would be in charge of receiving the values from the UFRJ professor to collect and store the fossils.
Fossils are assets of the Union and are part of the Brazilian cultural and natural heritage.
The Federal Police affirms that the investigations pointed to the action of a network of businessmen, officials and intermediaries who trade rare fossils in the region, with indications of the illicit practice by the UFRJ professor and other national and foreign researchers.
If the crimes are proven, the person under investigation will be responsible for crimes of criminal organization, usurpation of Union assets and environmental crimes, and may be sentenced to up to 16 years in prison.
As a result of an investigation started in 2017, Operation Santana Raptor received its name from the genus of dinosaur found in the Chapada do Araripe region, where 110 million-year-old fossilized wealth is found.
The Federal Police points out that, due to the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, special contagion prevention logistics were planned, with the distribution of PPE to all those involved in the mission, in order to preserve the health of the police officers. , witnesses, investigated. and their families.
