The result directly hits the finances of the residual organized armed group, GAO-r, Jaime Martínez Structure, which obtained about 180 billion pesos per month of the illicit exploitation of mining deposits in the north of Cauca.
Within the framework of the Ayacucho Plus Joint Strategic Campaign Plan, and thanks to military intelligence work carried out by National Army troops, six illegal mining production units were dismantled in a rural area of the municipality of Santander de Quilichao, department of Cauca.
The troops of the Twenty-Ninth Brigade, were supported by the Light Cavalry Group No. 8 and the National Police.
During the operation, which was planned during more than two months of intelligence work, the troops of the Mountain Battalion N°8 found and controllably destroyed 16 motors, two drills and an electric pump used for the illegal extraction of mining material. Apparently, these activities were directed by alias Marlon, the maximum ringleader of the Jacobo Arenas Western Bloc.
Through this operation, the illicit economy of the residual organized armed group is significantly disturbed, by reducing the resources destined to finance its criminal operations and weakens its armed presence and coercion over the communities of the north of Cauca and the south of the Valle del Cauca.
In the same way, the intervention led to stop the progressive environmental damage on seven hectares, where it is estimated that 53,500 m3 of soil would have been removed and about 2,000 trees would be cut down. The recovery of this area would have an approximate cost of 850 million pesos and more than 30 years for its plant regeneration.
Source: Press - Third Division
