BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first-ever joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said Thursday. The operation was backed by Interpol — the international police cooperation agency that helps law enforcement agencies in different countries share information and coordinate investigations — as well as the European Union and Dutch police specializing in environmental crime. Carried out in December, it involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas and led to the seizure of cash, unprocessed gold, mercury, firearms, drugs and mining equipment, Interpol said. Among those arrested were three men detained in Guyana on suspicion of gold smuggling and money laundering after officers seized unprocessed gold and about $590,000 in cash. Investigators said the suspects are believed to be part of an organized crime group and may have links to a major gold exporting company in Guyana. Illegal gold mining has become a major driver of deforestation and river pollution in the Amazon, contaminating waterways with toxic mercury and damaging lands relied on by Indigenous communities. In recent years, the activity has expanded rapidly as global gold prices climbed to near-record highs, pushing miners deeper into remote forest regions and turning gold into one of the most profitable commodities for organized crime operating across borders. “Illegal gold mining is growing rapidly and causing serious harm to the environment and local communities, especially in remote and fragile areas,” Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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