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Brazil expands gold trafficking to fight border cross smuggling
Interpol’s Gaia project supports global adoption of Brazilian tracing method
Amazon Police Cooperation Center AIDS in dealing with environmental offenses
By Ricardo Brito and Luis Zame Acosta
Brasilia, 24 September (Reuters) – Brazilian federal police can find out if gold came from an illegal mine in Amazon Renforrest, and investigators told Reuters that they are expanding the program in other countries, hoping to catch more criminals, who are trying to avoid the enforcement of Brazil.
Gold prices have increased this month as political uncertainty worldwide has inspired investors to find safe havens. Rising prices are a powerful incentive for illegal mining of precious metal in Amazon Raineavine. To seize from suspects for environmental damage caused by illegal mining in specific sections of rain at Brazil, the Brazilian program “Gold DNA,” catalogs unique metallic signal signature of the metal. In 2023, Brazil prosecuted its first case using technology. However, as criminal groups expand their access to the smelters to another from illegal mines in one country, police say they need to develop their gold library to maintain speed.
“When we have samples from all gold-producing areas in the PAN-Amazon region, our gold database will be completed, allowing us to identify the origin of scientifically seized samples,” Hamberto Fire said, who is the head of the Amazon and Environment Department in the Brazilian federal police.
Amazon Gold Database grows beyond Brazil
Some expansion works have already started.
A series of agreements signed by Brazilian President Luiz Enecio Lula da Silva and France’s Emmanuel Macron allowed police to receive samples from each other’s database to increase cooperation between investigators in Brazil and French Guiana. In August, the Fire met with the Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanches to discuss the program there. In Colombia, criminal groups often rob drug smuggling money through illegal mining works. Officials across the region fears that the practice may expand to other countries, which may make the investigation difficult.
In recent years, according to the National Police and Ministry of Defense of Columbia, Colombian officials have found Brazilian people fast working in illegal gold mines near the border. Two Colombian Defense Ministry officials told the Reuters on the condition of anonymity that the country is interested in cooperating with Brazil and taking its initiative to develop its project to analyze “Gold DNA”.
The work of the Brazilian federal police in tracing also inspired Interpol to develop the Gaia project supported by the German government, which to use Brazil’s way of catalog to train police agencies worldwide. Brazilian federal police officer, Interpol General Secretary Waldesi Urkiza said he supports the initiative to map the productive areas of gold as a strategy for a successful investigation against illegal mining.
Crackdown forced gold smugglers to strategize
A Brazilian federal police source told the Reuters that under the Lula administration, the investigation and raids under the Lula administration pushed criminal groups to turn to international groups in illegal golden miners, which exports gold to neighboring countries.
A series of state -led enforcement measures, including a Supreme Court verdict, forced smelters to verify the origin of gold, also made it difficult to illegally enter the market for mining gold.
“We used to watch gold from Venezuela from Venezuela from Venezuela-now it’s opposite, Gold is leaving Brazil,” Erich Morira Lima said, who is the head of the Brazilian gold-tracking program. Investigators say this change is already clear in data. Last year, there was a sharp decline in gold trade, in which the federal police seizure fell to 80 kg from a record of 308 kg in 2023.
Investigators believe that between January and August this year, police have already seized 253 kg of gold – half of which were leading to smelters in Venezuela. Now, the federal police officers are working to analyze the seized gold “DNA”, to find out where it came from.
As environmental criminals work rapidly on boundaries, the governments of the region are working to make other equipment for cooperation. This month, Lula joined the Colombian President Gustavo Petro and other officials to inaugurate the Amazon International Police Cooperation Center at Amazon, Lula Brazil. The center, which was first declared in 2023, is designed to facilitate information-sharing in Amazonian countries, with focus on environmental offenses. ,
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