“We really do not have the legal or legal form to annul them, but what we have done is not to give more of this type of permits,” Concepción told reporters during an event in which the Ministry of the Environment launched the Map of Forest Cover and Land Use for the year 2021.
Minister Milciades Concepción assured that organized crime is involved in the environmental area, they have networks and they launder money. He mentioned that they have detected that in the past they also had officials from some institutions who collaborated with criminal groups dedicated to the transfer of wood and other materials illegally.
Concepción noted that the international market for wildlife species and illegal logging have done a lot of damage to ecosystems, but that attempts are being made to close the siege on criminal groups with the creation of agencies such as the environmental police and a division of the Public Ministry to investigate the commission of this type of crime.
On the subject, the Vice Minister of Public Security, Ivor Pittí, said that there is the capacity of the public force within the structure of the Ministry of the Environment to carry out intelligence tasks in order to detect where illegal activities could be being committed to the detriment of the environment. .
“Organized crime has a thousand faces. They have smuggling, counterfeiting, drugs, trafficking and one of the crimes they commit within their wide range of business options is precisely environmental crimes. They make easy money to continue doing their illicit business,” he stated.
With information from Sergio Rivera.
