Gold at all costs: increasing metal prices multiply environmental crimes | International

In the southwest of the state of Pará, Brazil, among the huge, darkened waters of the Tapajós River, which slowly meander through the dense Amazon rainforest, a secret misfortune sneaks. With the river current, mercury spreads: an invisible poison that does not kill with the immediacy of a ball, but leaves a trace of violent disorders in every body that affects it, like an unsolved sentence.

Seven years ago, the inhabitants of the indigenous country of Munduruku, which belongs to the Tapajós region, began a significant increase in the strange health phenomena, which excesses a widespread concern among the communities. Some children were born with cerebral palsy, others had serious difficulties when walking, while many adults tremble, loss of vision and neurological problems such as memory gaps had developed.

“We didn't understand what happened, why so many people had these problems,” Alessandra Korap Munduruku, an indigenous guide and socio-environment-friendly activist, told El País. “We suspected that these problems are related to mining but needed help.”

In 2018, the Munduruku people decided to ask the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) to investigate the state of health of their members. By analyzing hair samples from residents of three mouth -rounders and fish from the river fish that flow through these communities, the researchers found that six out of 10 analyzed people were contaminated with the mercury levels recommended by international security standards, which caused irreversible health problems. In addition, fish, the best access to the food in the region, was one of the main bearers of the toxic substance. “The river was sick and made everyone sick,” says Korap.

“We observed adults with severe neurological disorders in connection with high mercury pollution,” says Paulo Basta, a doctor and one of the researchers responsible for the Fiokruz study. “We saw children with disabilities in the most important development milestones: they were slowly sitting, crawling, getting up or spoke their first words. Some had innate anomalies, ”says the scientist. “We often say that these population groups live in a state of socio-ecological vulnerability. In addition to historical weaknesses, there is an overlap of factors in connection with mining and contamination that make your situation worse. “

Mercury is usually used by miners to extract gold. The substance binds to mineral grains and water and forms a metallic amalgam, which is then heated, and evaporates the mercury to maintain pure gold. Since 1980, the Munduruku residents have suffered the consequences of the invasion of illegal gold brochures. In recent years, however, increasing the price has triggered interest in these illegal activities in countries that are protected by the Brazilian state and in other countries in South America.

In December 2024, a Brazilian federal police connection dismantled a gold trade program that illegally extracted from local countries, including the Munduruku. The Criminal Group recruited citizens from various nations to send suitcases on commercial flights with gold. The authorities estimate that these people with an estimated value of around 686 million US dollars removed about one ton of gold from the state of Pará. “We live in a time of many attacks. The Garimpeiros [illegal miners] Come on, destroy the river, take the gold and go after we have all made sick, ”says Korap, who has noticed an increase in illegal mining activities near his country.

The Brazilian police commissioner of the Federal Police Adriano Sombra, who leads the measures of the institution against environmental crimes in the north of the country, says that criminal organizations with the recent increase in the price of gold have seen a greater incentive to invest in illegal mines in areas with difficult geographical access.

“We have had to strengthen the operations in the past few months. Many criminals turn to more cross -border traffic on the street, which was previously considered too risky. If it is not worth taking the risk of being stopped at the border with illegal minerals, the price is now encouraging you to do so, ”says Sombra.

So far, the price for an ounce of gold has increased considerably and has reached an all -time high of $ 2,954.95 at the end of February, which was recorded in the same period of 57.7% compared to the value of the precious metal in the same period.

“Before the price increase, gold was already an ideal means for illegal activities, since the value can be moved very easily outside the financial sector,” says David Soud, director of research and analysis in the advice IR Concilium. “The increase in the price has made gold even more attractive because it concentrated the prosperity even more,” he says.

In times of political turbulence, war and a weak global economy, some individuals, companies and nations turn to gold to preserve their assets. At the same time, gold is used in some places to avoid international sanctions or wash illegal money. “The problem arises if there is no transparency,” says Julia Yansura, director of environmental crime and illegal financial program in the facts of the coalition. “Criminal organizations are increasingly using gold to accelerate the movement of their illegal finances, and the effects of this tendency tend to be spread out on countries as the burned -out gold.”

According to Soud, criminal groups often wash illegally gold very quickly after leaving the mine. “Records are fake, miners who do not exist are invented, and the mines are remote so that the state cannot move resources to check them,” he explains. “The same people are often behind many companies. You set them up for a short time, then close the front company and open new ones. “

“Gold satisfies all the logistical needs of organized crime,” added Yansura. “And the effects go beyond the funds.” In countries such as Brazil, measures such as the implementation of electronic tax documents and the end of the “presumption of faith and faith” have contributed to the mining declarations for sale on the formal market to strangle illegal gold trade. However, the specialists surveyed by El País claim that the ideas of risks as soon as the price for mineral drive increases to historical values, expands and crime spreads by a higher profit.

For Yansura, the fight against illegal gold trade has to begin by expanding control over the formal legal persons that move the resources. “It is important to solve this problem from the financial side. Most countries try to attack the challenge of operations, but that is not effective. This requires greater regional coordination in the future. ”

“These practices leave a kind of environmental deterioration that lies in society. Massive design, water pollution and violence are direct consequences of them and they have to be stopped, ”says Larissa Rodrigues, research director of the Escolhas Institute.

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