The U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of a new interagency task force to enhance efforts to identify, investigate and prosecute illegal timber trafficking related to environmental and other crimes.
The task force, called TIMBER (Timber Intercept Members Committee and Law Enforcement Resources), brings together multiple government departments — justice, agriculture, interior and homeland security — as well as the strategic divisions of the U.S. Transnational Organized Crime Commission. The goal, according to U.S. officials, is to fight deforestation and combat illegal timber smuggling through global supply chains, in part by increasing cooperation between the U.S. and foreign governments.