Colombian National Army has disabled five machines specialized in this environmental crime in the department of Putumayo. The authorities estimate that the criminals obtained profits of more than 1,000 million pesos per month.
Within the framework of operations against crimes that hit the environment, the Twenty-Seventh Rainforest Brigade, in a joint operation with the National Navy and coordinated with the National Police, neutralized machinery used for the illicit extraction of mining deposits in the village of Los Cristales, a rural area of the municipality of Puerto Caicedo, department of Putumayo.
Troops of the 27th Engineer Battalion General Manuel Castro Bayona, the Command Against Drug Trafficking and Transnational Threats arrived in the area and, with the support of the National Navy and the Police, found elements on the ground for the illicit exploitation of mining deposits, which were contaminating the ecosystem.
The authorities there found 5 dredgers, 6 engines, 6 classifiers, 10 gallons of fuel and 1600 meters of hose, whose valuation is higher than 1000 million pesos. All these elements were used to remove the soil and with the indiscriminate use of chemicals to obtain minerals such as gold.
According to information obtained by military and police intelligence agencies, they extracted about 3,600 grams of gold every month, giving illegal profits of more than 1,000 million pesos, which were destined for logistical and criminal networks of the GAO-r Structure 48, Comandos de Frontera.
In the same way, within the framework of environmental protection and environmental defense, an estimated area of 135 hectares, corresponding to 1,350,000 m3, was intervened to stop deforestation, which has an estimated cost for environmental restoration of 4000 million pesos; in the same way, the time for plants recovery is of more than 30 years.
Source: Press - Aviation Division of Air Assault and the Twenty-Seventh Rainforest Brigade
