Nature Warriors: The History of the Fight Against Environmental Crime in Brazil

On his first nocturnal mission in 1989, searching river boats for an expected drug haul, Federal Police agent Jorge Pontes heard something he would never forget: "—It's nothing, just turtles!" Over a hundred freshwater turtles, one bigger than the other, packed into the cargo hold of a fishing boat. For that team of agents, so focused on its mission to find and seize a few dozen kilos of cocaine paste, a hull-load of smuggled turtles meant "nothing". But for Jorge Pontes, that scene not onl...