The operation by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) that blocked 1.2 million m³ of illegal wood (equivalent to 480 Olympic swimming pools) in the country has revealed a fraud scheme called "rota inversa" ("inverse route").
The amount would yield R$ 2 billion (US$ 407 million) to criminals, estimates the agency. The suspects used the virtual wood credit market to 'heat up' the illegally extracted material.
The institute's intelligence team identified in the National System for the Control of Forest Products (Sinaflor) timber credits registered as originating in places where there is usually no exploitation and which were sold to companies in areas where there is a high incidence of irregular extraction.
The virtual credit is a document issued for the sale of wood. The investigation believes that the so-called "inverse route" would serve to try to make the illegal input pass for legal.
Regular farms in the Midwest and Northeast issue virtual wood credits, without necessarily having extracted the product.
Translated by Cassy Dias