Brazil’s Federal Police have arrested the Indigenous chief of the Mangueirinha Indigenous area in southern Paraná state. They accused José Carlos Gabriel, the chief of the territory comprising eight villages from two ethnic groups, of being part of a criminal gang involved with illegal logging critically endangered trees.

Gabriel was detained along with three other people, including the deputy chief of the community, Cristian Ricardo Carneiro, during an operation carried out Aug. 21.

“Investigations indicate that the criminal group, made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, operated in a structured manner with defined roles, including leadership, operations, logistics and the resale of illegally extracted timber,” Brazil’s Federal Police wrote in a statement.

“The group’s systematic activities caused irreparable environmental damage and left deplorable traces of destruction in the country’s largest remaining strongholds of the Araucaria tree,” it added.

The 17,280-hectare (42,700-acre) Mangueirinha Indigenous Territory is home to 780 families and one of the last remaining reserves of the critically endangered Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia) tree.

The tree is culturally important for local people who have been working to preserve it in the area for years.

“The Kaingáng culture needs the pine tree. It is our main plant, and its disappearance brings serious consequences,” including a loss of culture, food and resilience for the Kaingáng people, Bruno Ferreira, a historian and member of the Kaingáng people, told Mongabay contributor Sônia Kaingáng.

Despite its importance, the territory has seen a spike in logging of the Paraná pine and forest disturbance.

According to the investigation, 255 deforestation sites were identified since Gabriel assumed the Indigenous territory’s leadership in 2021. They claim that he facilitated and profited from illegal deforestation.  

“Investigations point to an exponential increase in the criminal logging of threatened tree species, especially Araucaria, starting in 2021, when the current chief took office,” Federal Public prosecutors wrote in a statement.

Gabriel, his defense attorney and other members of the Indigenous leadership have denied involvement.

“I will get out of here, and everything will be clarified in court. I have no involvement in this deforestation business or anything to do with timber,” Chief Gabriel said in an audio message delivered to the community, authorized by the court.

“The community is on the side of what is right, of what is just, and we know this imprisonment is arbitrary and unjust,” Laís Gabriel, a community leader and the daughter of chief José Carlos Gabriel, told local Rádio Araucária 95.1 FM.

Banner image: An illegal araucaria logging station uncovered inside the Mangueirinha Indigenous Territory, in Brazil’s Paraná state. Image courtesy of IBAMA.