This illegal activity continues to be one of the main threats against the department's ecosystems.
The pollution of rivers with toxic substances, the destruction of large areas of forest and the irreversible alteration of natural resources not only generate serious environmental impacts, but in the same way strengthen illicit activities that feed criminal structures. Faced with this threat, the Fifteenth Brigade is constant in its ongoing operation to protect the department's environmental heritage and weaken the financial resources of illegal groups.
Within the framework of military operations aimed at environmental protection and in compliance with the guidelines of the Ayacucho Plus Campaign Plan, the Military Engineer Battalion N°. 15 General Julio Londoño Londoño, in coordination with the Brigade Against the Illicit Exploitation of Mining Sites, carried out an operation against illicit mining in the village El Salero, municipality of Unión Panamericana, an important blow against the illicit activities of organized armed groups that commit crimes in the region.
During the operation, 30 mining production units were intervened and destroyed, which consisted in five Brazilian dragons (huge dredges), nine diver-type dredgers and 16 Cummins-type engines, machinery that causes a serious environmental impact on natural resources.
Through this result, an estimated economic loss of approximately 8 billion pesos in machinery used for this illegal activity was possible. In the same way, the illicit extraction and commercialization of approximately 40,800 grams of gold per month was prevented, whose value in the illicit market would reach 21 billion pesos.
According to intelligence information, this operation affects the illicit activities and criminal revenues that were obtained by the John Fredy Orejuela substructure of the organized armed group, GAO, Clan del Golfo.
Colombian National Army will continue to carry out operations to counteract the illicit exploitation of mining deposits, protect the country's strategic natural resources and weaken the sources of financing of organized armed groups that affect the security and stability of the department of Chocó territory.
In this same line of the military operation and preventing the illicit extraction of gold, the Infantry Battalion N°12 Primero de Línea with the support of the Brigade Against the Illicit Exploitation of Mining deposits, in joint work with the National Navy and in coordination with the National Police, reported the intervention of 20 mining production units in the village of Chintadó, municipality of Yuto.
During the operation it was possible the confiscation and controlled destruction of different machinery used for the extraction of this mineral. two sorting machines, two diver type dredgers, plants, four excavating machines, four cummins type engines, 10 motor pumps, 342 grams of mercury and 878 gallons of DIESEL.
Through this result, a loss valued at more than 2 billion pesos was possible in machinery with which a production of 15,000 grams of gold per month, equivalent to 7800 million pesos in trade.
These operations, in addition to affecting the illegal activities of people and criminal structures that profit from illicit profits, an, within the framework of environmental protection and environmental defense, stops the dumping of 342 grams of mercury of the environment, heavy metal department that generates a serious and lasting blow to water ecosystems and finally to the inhabitants.
Source: Colombian National Army - Seventh Division
