Activists from Greenpeace have succeeded in using GPS trackers to locate those responsible for illegal logging of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

According to a blog post by the group, for the past two months, Greenpeace has secretly been putting GPS trackers on the trucks of illegal loggers.

"Greenpeace activists lived amongst the loggers near Santarém, [Brazil] monitoring their activity at the center of the logging industry in the Amazon," the post explained. "Covert GPS tracking technology and satellite images means we can find out what loggers are really up to -- and tell the world about it."

Greenpeace, which is "the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems ..." according to its website, reportedly took pictures of loggers -- who traveled 200 miles into government-owned land -- "surrounded by logs," the blog said.

"They carry timber on the roads only at night to evade the police. On one dead-end road -- the PA-370 highway -- we counted an average of 80 trucks loaded with logs each night. They were all bound for Santarém," the blog continued.

The leader of the operation, an anonymous Brazilian, said they used nine different trackers.

"The beacons had to be well-placed on the vehicle -- hidden, but not so hidden so the signal was lost," the leader told the Guardian. "We had to work opportunistically, waiting for the best moments when the truckers were [distracted], talking to someone."

The Pará state Environment department (Sema) released a statement regarding the illegal logging in its town.

"Greenpeace's research into timber companies transporting and receiving illegal timber demonstrates the necessity to improve the control and monitoring mechanisms to prevent illegal logging," the department said. "The current efforts to prevent illegal logging in the state forests are aimed at modernizing licensing, control and supervision."

Sema plans to use GPS "chips" to confirm wood origin by the second half of 2015.

"As technology gets better, cheaper and smaller, it becomes easier for us to turn the tables and expose their crimes to the world," Richard George, forest campaigner for Greenpeace U.K., said.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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