Overview
- Security forces destroyed more than S/2.3 million in equipment used for illegal gold extraction in the Balata and Playa Córdoba areas of Madre de Dios.
- The Army’s Second Jungle Brigade led the raid with support from the National Police and environmental prosecutors.
- Troops dismantled five large mining ponds and three dredge rafts and seized submerged motors, fuel, suction pumps, carpets, metal cylinders, pipes, and more than 1,000 meters of rope.
- Prosecutors ordered all seized gear burned at the site to prevent the operators from reusing it.
- Defense officials frame the action as cutting criminal supply lines and protecting rivers, and it follows earlier regional raids that destroyed gear valued at S/10.57 million in La Cantonera and S/1.8 million in the Azul area.