In the Operation 'Artemisa', the Governorate of Meta, the National Army, the Colombian Air Force, the National Police, the Attorney General of the Nation and Cormacarena, it has been possible to lead strategies and operations against indiscriminate felling and illegal mining.
Troops of the Seventh Brigade, CTI (Technical Investigations Corps), officials of Cormacarena and qualified personnel in the handling of explosives of the Police, found two dredges with capacity for seven people, with electrical system, equipped for the illegal extraction of gold, valued in 60 million pesos. In the same way, they found four areas of forest use, which contained nine trees corresponding to eight cedars and an achapo of 60 meters height and approximately 100 centimeters diameter, apparently used for the production of rudimentary dredges.
In the same place, a coca base paste laboratory was found. It was made of wood and sheets of zinc, which contained 100 kilograms of minced coca, 110 gallons of coca base in process and 88 gallons of DIESEL, with a weekly production capacity of 25 kilograms of coca base paste, valued at 5 million pesos.
In the same way, in the immediate vicinity of the sector, one hectare of coca leaf bush was eradicated, directly harming the illicit economy of the GAO-R First Structure.
The material was put into custody of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights and the Protection of the Environment No. 19 for its judicial process and subsequent destruction.
The illegal exploitation of gold has become a profitable business for organized armed groups, since once extracted, it can be later commercialized in a legal manner; biodiversity and wealth of different regions of the country is being hit by the deforestation that this environmental crime produces, it is a problem that generates the contamination of water sources from which the communities subsist.
Thus, the Environmental Bubble, in an inter-institutional effort, has been counteracting crimes against the environment and natural resources in the Orinoquía region and the Colombian Amazonas.
Source: National Army
