A shadowy economy of illicit gold mining on Indigenous lands in Brazil’s Amazon region relies on the right equipment and fuel access, an AP investigation found.
Police have intensified their efforts to identify and capture aircraft supporting illegal mining, but tracking down planes’ owners is stymied by the fact they’re usually registered to fronts — relatives, workers, or spouses who refuse to name names. Still, police said they have identified the true owners of most of the planes they've seized, and keep them as evidence while the investigations advance.
But attempts to disrupt the illicit operations have been met with just as many countermeasures to subvert the authorities.Dozens of pilots arrived recently in Boa Vista from other states looking for work during Brazil’s economic downturn, a time that coincided with high gold prices and a drop in inspections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A former illegal miner who said he used to operate on the reserve until he was indicted, and spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity, said aircraft serving illegal sites are usually kept in one location, loaded with supplies in another, and then flown to the Yanomami reserve. Locations are constantly switched up to try and avoid seizures, he said in an interview at a riverside public square in Boa Vista.
Months later, according to a federal police statement at the time, when they raided the properties searching for one of the suspects, police found guns, cash and gold — but the suspects were long gone.Those involved in the illegal gold trade represent a cross-section of individuals and companies ranging from shady fly-by-night operators to legitimate businesses. And a variety of federal agencies have been clamping down on criminal enterprises that profit from illegal mining in protected areas.
Brazil’s environmental regulator, Ibama, has also ramped up its efforts against illegal gold mining operations. Last September, the agency closed 59 clandestine airstrips, five helicopter pads and three river ports within the Yanomami reserve. Agents also seized 11 aircraft, eight vehicles and three tractors.
Even airstrips that are supposed to be used by the government to send doctors and medical supplies for the Indigenous people are used by illegal miners, according to Marugal.“It is supposed to be a landing strip for us, but they’ve taken it over,” Junior Hekurari Yanomami, president of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana Indigenous Health Council, said angrily in an interview in his office.
The prospectors are invaders “who want to destroy, who are sick with hatred,” Maria Leusa Munduruku, president of the Munduruku Womens’ Association, whose house was burned to the ground by the miners in retaliation, said during a panel discussion last October. “When an operation begins, people there are already talking about it,” said Superintendent Peres. “They hide machinery in the forest and even sink their dredger barges into the rivers. After they retrieve them, they still work.”The spread of clandestine communications networks on Yanomami land is one of the many new challenges authorities are scrambling to adapt to in Roraima’s modern-day gold rush.
The former prospector, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, said that illegal mining fuel providers constantly switch up which gas stations they use to avoid detection. The internal report from Brazil’s environment regulator obtained by the AP shows a list of Pioneiro’s clients from January to October 2021, and detailed investigator notes that revealed some of the alleged buyers had no planes or activities requiring aircraft fuel. Some 868,000 liters of the fuel had no known destination — more than half what the company sold in the 10-month period, according to the report.
One of the business partners is Rodrigo Martins de Mello. He is also a partner in the government-contracted air transport company investigated for possibly flying equipment and miners to illegal gold mining sites. A judge found those arguments partially convincing and last month ruled that half of De Mello's seized assets must be released. The ruling hasn't yet been carried out; for now, his aircraft remain parked behind the federal police headquarters in Boa Vista.Attempts to crack down on illegal mining in Roraima state face fierce local resistance, despite the fact all mining in the state is illegal. Mining has long been a fixture in the region and deeply ingrained in its history.
“We are the founders of the state,” said Isa Carine Farias, the association’s president, and who told the AP she previously worked with illegal mining. “They take an Indigenous person to the United Nations ; why not take a miner, too?” President Bolsonaro, who is popular in Roraima state, has also repeatedly spoken out against the destruction of equipment.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Amazon Will Buy Thousands Of Ram ProMaster Electric Delivery Vans Every YearAmazon says it will buy thousands of Ram ProMaster electric vans a year beginning in 2024.
Read more »
'Fallout' series from Amazon appoints showrunners, Jonathan Nolan to direct premiereWith a few Nuka Cola bottle caps, a Pip-Boy, some power armor and a plasma rifle, we're ready for the wasteland
Read more »
Amazon has mostly avoided antitrust scrutiny, but that may change in 2022Congress and the Federal Trade Commission have Amazon in their collective crosshairs entering 2022. While new bills target Amazon's online-sales practices, a...
Read more »
SEC charges ‘decentralized’ Amazon Web Services competitor with scamming investorsSEC charges 'decentralized' Amazon Web Services competitor with scamming investors
Read more »