A lawyer was arrested at an airport in Brazil while trying to ship 12 live stingrays taken from the Amazon basin.
Naiane Pimentel was stopped at the cargo terminal at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus on Thursday evening and tried to avoid detection by telling law enforcement officers that she was delivering a shipment of three Styrofoam containers containing Tucunaré fish, native to the Amazon. and it is less rare.
However, Pimentel aroused suspicion when she showed a document “containing distorted information about the cargo,” the federal police said in a statement.
The officers then opened the boxes and discovered that the lawyer had twelve wild and endangered stingrays – which can fetch as much as $1,200.
The stingrays were destined for the southeastern city of São Paulo, where they would be sold in pet stores that specialized in animals kept in aquariums.
Police at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, seized 12 live stingrays from a lawyer identified as Naiane Pimentel as they searched the cargo she declared to be Tucunaré fish.
The twelve live stingrays were kept individually in plastic bags containing water and newspaper pages and stored in three Styrofoam boxes shipped from Manaus to São Paulo.
Federal police said lawyer Naiane Pimentel, who was arrested on Thursday and released on bail on Friday, had already made 200 shipments since 2022. The deliveries had a total weight of 8 tons.
It is unknown how the lawyer obtained the twelve sea animals.
All stingrays, which are considered endangered, were kept in plastic bags containing water and newspaper pages.
The stingrays were removed from the airport and transported to the headquarters of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewal Resources in Manaus and released on a beach in Rio Negro on Friday.
Victor Motta, head of the Manaus federal police, told reporters that it appeared the stingrays would not remain in São Paulo.
“In fact, there is already a line of research indicating that there may be international trade in these animals,” Motta said, as quoted by Brazilian news channel G1.
Federal law enforcement officers have seized three Styrofoam boxes containing 12 live stingrays that were shipped by a lawyer from Manaus to São Paulo, where they were to be distributed to stores specializing in animals kept in aquariums.
Brazil’s federal police are investigating whether the stingrays would be shipped out of the country
It’s unclear how much she hoped to make from each stingray
The stingrays were removed from the airport and transported to the headquarters of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewal Resources in Manaus and released on a beach in Rio Negro on Friday.
Pimentel, who is accused of using falsified information and committing environmental crimes, was released Thursday on bail of 14,000 Brazilian reals (about $2,776).
In addition to her practice as a lawyer, she also has an animal transport and trading company. Her agency has processed more than 200 shipments since 2022.
According to the federal police, those deliveries amounted to more than 8 tons, almost equal to the exact weight of a stingray cargo.
Investigators are now looking into whether Pimentel used her company to export the stingrays and who made the purchases.
“We’re going to investigate this entire pet trafficking network, dig deeper into the origins of this animal, where it came from and identify other recipients,” Motta said.