HomeNewsAnalysisJade: New Crown Jewel for Crime Groups in Guatemala
ANALYSIS

Jade: New Crown Jewel for Crime Groups in Guatemala

CONTRABAND / 16 DEC 2019 BY HÉCTOR SILVA ÁVALOS EN

Authorities have uncovered that an eastern coastal region of Guatemala, known to be a cocaine corridor, has been used in the trafficking of jade -- a gemstone used for millennia by the ancient Mayans that has undergone a recent investment boom in China.

Local authorities and politicians are suspected of facilitating the illegal mining and smuggling operation, according to the Public Ministry. 

On October 1, Guatemalan police seized a container with 10 tons of unprocessed jade that had been mined close to Morales, one of the most important cities in Izabal, an eastern coastal department. Four workers accompanying the truck were arrested, Prensa Libre reported.  

The arrests and seizure took place after the Attorney General’s Office began to investigate a US citizen selling jade in Antigua, a colonial-era city favored by tourists. 

Since then, a dozen people have come under investigation, including two Chinese nationals who own land in Izabal on which the jade was mined, according to an investigator who spoke with InSight Crime under the condition of anonymity. 

Prosecutors said that the seized jade was to be exported as a shipment of serpentine, a kind of stone residue used in construction. This is a common trafficking technique where raw precious metals and stones are billed as lesser-valued minerals without major export restrictions. 

Prosecutors suspect the involvement of local authorities and politicians in the illegal mining operation, as the smugglers needed to bypass mining and environmental regulators before the jade departed the port of Santo Tomás de Castilla, on Izabal’s Caribbean coast.

A series of audio recordings obtained by InSight Crime appear to show Izabal governor Erick Bosbelí Martínez talking about jade mining activity.

The Attorney General’s Office, however, has said that the governor is not currently under investigation in the affair. He has denied involvement and has said that the accusations against him are part of a campaign to discredit him for his efforts to combat crime in the department. “These recordings are to incriminate me, I could be talking about anything,” he told the newspaper Soy502.

In one of the audio recordings, the governor asks an associate whether someone could "take pictures of the operation." The operation is a reference to illegal mining, according to an investigator with knowledge of the case. The investigator, who spoke with InSight Crime under the condition of anonymity for security reasons, provided context about what was said in the recordings. 

(Recording of Bosbelí Martínez talking about the "operation")

In another recording, he says to hide the "machinery" because he is worried. He also refers to speaking with Guatemala City officials to keep his associates from being bothered. 

(Recording of Bosbelí Martínez talking about the "machinery")

In another recording, when talking about a jade-rich location close to the Maderos village, Bosbelí Martínez says that “if there is material, it’s more money earned.”

(Recording of Bosbelí Martínez talking about the "material")

Bosbelí Martínez, who was appointed governor of Izabal by outgoing President Jimmy Morales, also refers to a possible meeting between Asian citizens and the president.

(Recording of Bosbelí Martínez talking about the meeting)

An agent involved in the jade bust told Soy502 that the October operation was only possible because it did not involve local officials. “We cannot trust anyone,” environmental crimes prosecutor Aura López told the newspaper. “They can regularly rely on the support of local authorities. We have opted to work with staff from other places to prevent information leaks.” 

SEE ALSO: Guatemala News and Profile

At least two public officials that work for state investigation agencies in Izabal told InSight Crime that the traditional drug trafficking clans in the department, like Los Mendoza and Los Lorenzana, have also ventured into the jade business.

During the operations, authorities have seized at least four excavators, machines used to explore the soil where the jade seams are located. On at least one occasion, the owners hid the machinery after warnings from local officials, according to the investigators. 

InSight Crime Analysis

The eastern coastal region of Guatemala has long been a cocaine corridor due to its well-worn smuggling routes, nearby ports, and corrupt local authorities and politicians who facilitate trafficking.

In this case, cocaine has been joined by another valuable product: jade. Pure jadeite, the mineral seized in Izabal, is the most precious form of jade. This type of stone is only found in four places in the world: Myanmar, California, Japan and the mountain ranges of Guatemala.

SEE ALSO: Elites and Organized Crime in Guatemala 

An investigator from the Attorney General’s Office told InSight Crime that the shipment seized in October was valued at 77 million quetzales, equivalent to some $10 million. This indicates that each ton of raw jadeite could have been sold for about $1 million, according to Guatemalan police. 

In recent years, China has fueled a boom in the precious stone -- long seen as a symbol of wealth and good fortune. According to a 2010 New York Times article, an ounce of jade was selling for $3,000, more than gold. The jade frenzy, however, has also fueled massive illegal mining in nearby Myanmar, where the stone is extracted at top speed under dangerous conditions and then secreted over the border. 

Reports of jade smuggling in Guatemala are few, but the amount seized in Morales indicates that authorities took down a major operation. On top of mining the jade, the smuggling of the stone out of the country required about 400,000 quetzales, or some $52,000, in bribes per month to each of his four alleged associates. This would mean that bribes to officials and authorities would total $208,000.

It is noteworthy that the jade extraction occurred in Izabal, one of the departments where the Guatemalan government has maintained a state of emergency since last October, following the murders of three soldiers. The army has conducted several operations in the state under the pretext of stopping drug trafficking operations.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ELITES AND CRIME / 11 NOV 2022

The Venezuelan government has placed and rogue mining gangs in its crosshairs, as the military is deployed in Bolívar.

CARIBBEAN / 15 OCT 2021

Merchants travelling to Trinidad and Tobago, fishing vessels, even the occasional tourist – all are tempting targets for pirates off…

CHILE / 1 JUN 2022

A new report by Chilean think tank AthenaLab has laid bare Chile's ever-increasing spectrum of criminal threats, from copper theft…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…