Brazilian federal police on Friday arrested 18 people involved in a scheme to issue licenses to transport illegal timber in the Amazon rain forest region, the Ministry of Environment said.

Some public servants and timber traders participated in the scheme in the northern state of Para, the ministry said.

Some of the arrested are employees of the National Institute of Environment and Para's State Secretariat for Science, Technology and Environment.

This has been the first time the police uncovered a fraud licensing scheme since the implementation of a new licensing system in September 2006.

The computer-based system replaced the paperwork used in the former system, allowing frauds to be uncovered more quickly, the Ministry of Environment said.

According to Environment Minister Marina Silva, when the paper-based system was in place, it would take from one and a half years to two years to discover a fraud, compared to the six months the police spent to dismantle the fraud scheme in Para state.

Source: Xinhua