Brazilian police have arrested the "biggest deforester" of the Amazon jungle, identified as Ezequiel Antonio Castanha, officials said.
Castanha was arrested last Saturday in a joint operation of Federal Police and the National Security Force in the Amazonian town of Novo Progresso in Para state, the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama) said Monday.
Castanha is accused of leading a gang that illegally occupied public land in the Amazon and then cut the rainforest to sell the property as high-priced pastureland.
The gang operated near federal highway BR-163 in Para, and according to estimates of the public prosecutor's office in that state, it was responsible for 10 percent of the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the past two years.
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