Miners on Yanomami indigenous territory financed by organized crime

Last Sunday (Apr. 30), security agents killed four miners on the Yanomami indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima. According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), one of the deceased miners was a member of a criminal faction with a nationwide presence. This line of investigation has become a focus of the federal government's intelligence efforts in the region, as Ibama head Rodrigo Agostinho revealed in an interview with journalists on Monday night (May 1) in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima.

"Our intelligence service has found very strong evidence that some mining points are maintained with the support of criminal organizations. This is being investigated," said Agostinho. "As for the operation on Sunday [30], one of the people who died had a very strong involvement with one of the criminal organizations."

The day after the incursion by Federal Highway Police and Ibama agents at the Ouro Mil mining site inside indigenous land, four miners reportedly confronted the authorities and were killed. Agência Brasil has reported that one of the deceased individuals had ties to organized crime and hailed from the state of Amapá. He is believed to be a member of the First Command of the Capital (PCC), the main Brazilian criminal faction with a nationwide presence, despite its origins in São Paulo."

The police reported that they seized a cache of weapons at the site of the confrontation, including one rifle, three pistols, seven rifles, two holographic sights, and ammunition of various calibers.