HomeNewsBriefPeru's 'Mining Mafia' Seek To Legalize Their Operations
BRIEF

Peru's 'Mining Mafia' Seek To Legalize Their Operations

ILLEGAL MINING / 28 AUG 2013 BY MIRIAM WELLS EN

Peruvian "mafias" with extensive illegal mining interests are seeking to formalize those operations, according to the government, drawing attention to the fine line between informal and illegal mining.

A report by El Comercio newspaper describes how various "gold capos" are on a government list of concession title holders, aiming to convert their criminal operations into legal ones. On the list are the names Gregoria Casas Huamanhuillca, alias "Goya", and Cecilio Baca Fernandez, alias "Baca," an ex-husband and wife whom El Comercio describes as "founding the empire of illegal mining," and who have been investigated for money laundering.

Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal acknowledged that the names had been included, but blamed it on "errors that regional governments make" and said they must be removed. However the regional director from the Energy and Mines Ministry, Milner Oyola, told El Comercio that Baca and his family were among 5,000 informal miners who had completed the necessary procedures in the formalization process. "Everyone has equal rights and they shouldn't be excluded."

It was also reported that six men and four women had been caught at Lima's Jorge Chavez airport carrying more than $4 million in illegal mining profits in their suitcases.

InSight Crime Analysis

Illegal mining is huge business in Peru, estimated last year to be worth more financially than the cocaine trade. That does not mean it is more of a security issue. Although there have been some reports of links between the illegal mining sector and drug trafficking groups, the trade is not dominated by criminal groups as it is in other countries, particularly Colombia.

Instead, in Peru much of it is simply informal, a somewhat inevitable situation in areas where there is no state presence. Madre de Dios, a southeastern jungle region which is Peru's gold mining heartland, has few roads, no fiscal controls and no banks, yet more than $27 million dollars is estimated to move through just one department in the area monthly. Baca and Casas are thought to control more than 2,000 hectares of illegal mining in the region.

While debatable to what extent criminal groups are involved, it's undeniable that informal gold mining has devastated thousands of hectares of Peruvian rainforest and employs thousands of people in highly unsafe conditions, generating huge personal -- and illegal profits -- for barons such as Baca and Goya, and so any moves to formalize the sector should be welcomed. 

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

COCAINE / 5 JUL 2022

European-bound Peruvian cocaine is usually moved by foreign gangs. But now homegrown criminals are muscling in on the action.

ECUADOR / 14 FEB 2022

Peru has convicted a gang of shark fin traffickers for the first time in history but more is needed to…

BRAZIL / 2 DEC 2022

Illegal gold mining in the remote Ecuadorian province of Napo has grown at a staggering rate. Environmental crime has grown…

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…