A series of tunnels excavated by gang members and illegal miners were detected by the Public Force in Crucitas de Cutris, San Carlos.
At least five tunnels have been detected by the police in an operation called ‘Lapa 1’ to dismantle the clandestine action of the gang members determined to extract gold in that border area.
As confirmed by the Ministry of Public Security (MSP), the tunnels will be destroyed soon.
They are very elaborate tunnels. We saw one that was 70-meter deep, with a very strong wooden structure extracted from the area,”
explained Luis Carlos Castillo, Deputy Minister of Public Safety.
The official said that in the recent days of police actions have found crimes associated with drug trafficking, prostitution and even assaults.
In the vicinity of the 70-meter tunnel, Border Police officers found a pick-up vehicle with two tons of material that would be used to extract gold. Apparently, the aim of the oreros and coligalleros is to move the material to more distant areas to avoid the police during the extraction.
On the site the environmental destruction is remarkable, which grows by virtue of the use of mercury during the gold extraction process.
The mining estate where the project led by the Canadian company Infinito Gold Mining, now known as the Vivoyet farm, was unsuccessfully tried is not the only point besieged by the miners and coligalleros.
That place, a territory of some 800 hectares and known as ‘Crucitas mine estate’, has been in the recurring eye of offenders who seek to get rich through pollution and destruction.