CCPI Amazônia, a new coordinating body for Amazon policing, oversaw its first two river-mining crackdowns in September (above) and November. (Photo by Brazilian Federal Police)
Authorities have begun using a new joint-policing body created by the nine Amazon Basin countries to crack down on the region’s illegal river mining by setting fire to the miners’ suction-dredge barges. In November, Brazilian Federal Police and environmental-enforcement personnel and Colombian National Police burned 14 gold-dredging barges on a stretch of the Puruê River that straddles the Brazilian-Colombian border, agencies involved in the operation said. The Nov. 14-18 enforcement action, called Operation Golden Frontier, was the second conducted under the auspices of the Amazon International Police Cooperation Center (CCPI Amazônia), a body formed in September. Headquartered in Manaus, Brazil, CCPI Amazônia links police and environmental enforcement agencies from nine Brazilian Amazon states and the eight countries that share Amazon borders with Brazil. Its aim is to coordinate joint efforts to curb criminal activity in the Amazon Basin. The CCPI’s first operation, conducted Sept. 10-14... [Log in to read more]
