The operation managed to hit one of the main sources of illicit financing of criminal structures in the south of the country, hitting their economic resources and stopping illicit extraction activities that generate serious environmental damage in the department of Putumayo.
As part of the operations in the framework of the Campaign Plan Ayacucho Plus, troops of the Field Artillery Battalion N.° 27, of the Twenty-Seventh Brigade, carried out a military operation in the village Playa Rica, rural area of the municipality of Puerto Caicedo, department of Putumayo, which achieved the finding and destruction of seven units of illicit mining production used for the illicit exploitation of open-pit mining sites.
The operation was possible thanks to the coordinated and inter-institutional work conducted by the 62nd Air Intelligence Group of the Colombian Aerospace Force, the Regional Intelligence of the Amazonas region, the Brigade Against the Illicit Exploitation of Mining Sites and the Sijin (Judicial Police) of the National Police, which provided resources that led to the consolidation of strategic information and the effective execution of military operations against structures specialized in the illicit exploitation of mining sites in the department of Putumayo.
The intervention was carried out in an area where criminal structures continue to use rainforest routes and water sources to sustain illegal activities that directly affect the environment and the protection of the inhabitants. According to information obtained during the operation, these illegal complexes are being operated by people used by the residual organized armed group Segunda Marquetalia Structura Comandos de Frontera.
During the operation, the troops found and destroyed seven illegal mining production units, four diver-type dredgers, two classifiers, 400 meters of black hose and 80 meters of three-inch PVC pipe, elements used to carry out illegal extractive activities in the region that would have a cost of more than 128 million pesos.
Through this result, an economic loss of more than 3,000 million pesos was dealt to the illicit finances of this criminal structure, in addition to preventing the production of approximately 6,000 grams of gold, elements that would be illegally traded to strengthen the logistical and criminal resources of the residual organized armed group.
The illegal exploitation of mining deposits not only represents a source of financing for organized armed groups, but in the same way causes serious environmental damage, contamination of water sources and progressive deterioration of the ecosystems in the department of Putumayo.
Through this result of the military operation, Colombian National Army continues to weaken the logistical and financial resources of the criminal structures that commit crimes in this region of the country, ratifying its commitment to the protection of natural resources, territorial security and the well-being of communities.
Source: Press - Sixth Division
