Intelligence Activity In Combating Environmental Crimes In The Amazon: Challenges And Opportunities For Public Security

Abstract

Environmental crimes in the Brazilian Amazon have evolved into complex and sophisticated structures, increasingly embedded in transnational criminal networks and producing significant impacts on public security, territorial governance, and state sovereignty. Over the last two decades, geospatial monitoring systems such as PRODES, DETER, and MapBiomas have revealed the intensification of illegal deforestation, mining, wildcat extraction, and other environmentally harmful activities. Recent studies demonstrate that these operations are frequently supported by organized groups employing riverine logistics, encrypted communication, illicit financing, and armed protection. In this context, Public Security Intelligence emerges as a fundamental strategic tool for anticipating criminal patterns, supporting operational decision-making, and guiding integrated environmental enforcement. Operations such as Tamoiotatá, Guardões do Bioma, and Base Arpão reveal that intelligence-led policing, combined with geointelligence technologies, significantly reduces environmental offenses, strengthens state presence in remote territories, and disrupts logistical bases of organized crime while reducing violent crime indicators. This article analyzes how intelligence applied to Public Security contributes to the fight against environmental crime in Amazonas, examining its interfaces with interagency governance, technological monitoring systems, criminal dynamics, and contemporary public policies. The methodology includes document analysis and an integrative review of twenty scientific papers, technical reports, and institutional documents published between 2020 and 2025, along with operational and geospatial data from INPE, environmental agencies, and law enforcement. Findings indicate that intelligence-driven operations increase enforcement efficiency, enable more strategic resource allocation, reduce criminal recurrence, and enhance the state's capability to protect the Amazon biome. The study concludes by recommending the establishment of a State Environmental Intelligence System, essential for strengthening public security and environmental governance.