Police from five Amazon countries have carried out a major operation against environmental crime in the world's largest rainforest. Authorities from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru deployed more than 3,600 officers during Operation Green Shield 2026, which ran from July 15 to 31, targeting illegal mining, logging, wildlife trafficking, fuel smuggling, and land grabbing. The operation resulted in 839 arrests during 1,045 field actions, as reported by infohub.kz.
The value of seized goods exceeded $280 million. Authorities confiscated over 280,000 cubic meters of illegally harvested timber — enough to fill roughly 110 Olympic-sized swimming pools — along with 195 metric tons of minerals and equipment used in illegal mining, including gold, carbon, iron, and copper. Additionally, more than 3,000 live animals were rescued, and at least 430 dead animals linked to wildlife trafficking were found, including snakes, birds, lizards, and fish.
Environmental crime has become one of the Amazon's most profitable illicit industries, fueled by global demand for gold, timber, and wildlife. Investigators say the same criminal organizations often combine illegal mining, logging, and wildlife trafficking, using shared routes and financial networks. This has increased the importance of cross-border cooperation, as criminal groups frequently move people and goods across neighboring countries to evade law enforcement.
The operation was coordinated from Colombia's capital, Bogota, by the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), a UAE-backed initiative launched in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2023.
This operation follows a similar multinational effort in 2025 that brought together more than 1,500 officers from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. That operation was one of the first large-scale attempts to coordinate intelligence sharing and simultaneous enforcement across borders against environmental crime.
This year's operation expanded to include Bolivia and involved synchronized deployments in remote border and river regions. Col. Dana Humaid, director general of the International Affairs Bureau at the UAE Ministry of Interior, said: "The UAE leadership firmly believes that collaboration is essential to combating transnational crime. By working together, law enforcement agencies can achieve stronger results." Colombian National Police Director Gen. William Oswaldo Rincón Zambrano said the operation showed how intelligence sharing could be translated into coordinated enforcement. "Protecting our natural resources requires a shared response," he said. Peruvian police environmental chief Gen. J. Manuel Cruz Chamba said environmental crimes "do not respect borders" and therefore require international cooperation.