As part of the Ayacucho Plus Campaign Plan, troops of the 27th Combat Engineer Battalion, of the Twenty-Seventh Brigade of Colombian National Army, carried out an operation that managed to deal a powerful blow to the illicit activities derived from illegal mining in the department of Putumayo.
The military operation was carried out in the hamlets Dos Quebradas and Bocanas del Fragua, a rural area of the municipality of Puerto Guzmán, through an air assault insertion and in coordination with the Military Intelligence Brigade No. 1, the Brigade against the Illicit Exploitation of Mining deposits and the Aviation Mobility and Maneuver Battalion No. 6. Thanks to these actions, it was possible to find and subsequently destroy machinery used for the illicit exploitation of open-pit mining sites.
During the operation, a huge dredge, high-capacity equipment used for gold extraction in water tributaries, as well as three diver-type dredgers and specialized machinery for illegal mining activities were destroyed. According to military intelligence information, these elements would be being operated by people under pressure and influence of the residual organized armed group Comandos de Frontera Structure, belonging to the so-called National Coordinator Bolivarian Army.
Additionally, multiple logistical and technical elements used in this illicit activity were disabled, including three classifiers, a large spiral classifier, a 100-kilowatt power generator, two 50-horsepower outboard motors, a 1700 HP industrial engine, six modified engines, four gasoline-powered motor pumps, as well as fuel, hoses and other precursors used in the illegal extraction of minerals.
This operation generates a direct economic loss of more than 2,000 million pesos, corresponding to the value of the destroyed machinery. In the same way, the financial capacity of this criminal structure is significantly hit, considering that the illicit exploitation produced approximately 13,500 kilograms of gold per month, equivalent to about 6750 million pesos, resources that stop entering the residual organized armed group.
Through this result of the military operation, Colombian National Army continues to weaken the sources of financing of the organized armed groups that commit crimes in the region, while contributing decisively to the protection of the environment and the preservation of natural resources.
The items were put into custody of the judicial authority for their prosecution process.
Source: Press - Sixth Division
