Nicole Bahls’ monkeys began the PF investigation against animal traffickers

It all started with Mikael and Davi, monkeys acquired illegally and found by the Federal Police in January 2023 on presenter Nicole Bahls’s site. Since then, an investigation began, concluded this Tuesday (12), with Operation Defaunation.

Through it, the PF dismantled a criminal organization specialized in the illegal capture, reception and trafficking of wild animals in Rio. Around 100 federal police officers served three preventive arrest warrants and 20 search and seizure warrants in the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, Niterói , São Gonçalo (RJ), Itaboraí (RJ) and Maricá (RJ).

Snakes, ponies, macaws and monkeys, among other animals, some in precarious health conditions, were seized in the action. According to the PF, within a year, criminal activity led to illicit enrichment of approximately R$2.4 million, which could reach R$14.4 million. The commercialization would be carried out through falsification of documents and public seals from IBAMA and INEA.

This was precisely the justification given by Nicole when the police were at her farm, in Itaboraí, in the metropolitan region of Rio. She and her boyfriend, Marcelo Viana, even presented documents proving an alleged legal purchase, but the police discovered that the The paperwork was false and the animals came from a wildlife trafficking network.

Mikael and Davi were, at the time, almost five months old. The animals had been purchased by Marcelo three months earlier. He paid R$60,000 for each one. “Before closing the deal, Marcelo did a lot of research and discovered an ‘authorized breeding site’ in Maricá [próximo a Itaboraí]. In our heads, everything was cool, and it wasn’t. We were deceived”, stated Bahls, in January 2023.