“We discovered that at the very least 3.14 tons of illegally extracted gold had been laundered utilizing fraudulent statements of the origin of the ore,” the assertion mentioned.
A lot of the gold was refined in Sao Jose do Rio Preto, a metropolis within the north of Sao Paulo state that has a thriving jewellery trade and the place unlawful gold is melted down into ingots with authorized gold, making it exhausting to hint the unlawful steel.
“We now have to determine whether or not the gold was unlawful and got here from unauthorized mining,” the top of the operation, federal police officer Alexandre Manoel Goncalves, advised Reuters.
A federal decide ordered the confiscation and freezing of two.9 billion reais ($514 million) in money and property, together with automobiles, bikes, jewellery and gold nuggets, the police mentioned.
4 firms have been suspended, six mining licenses and 4 gun possession permits have been revoked, and 4 native authorities officers have been ordered faraway from workplace, the police mentioned.
The assertion added that Indigenous individuals have been discovered to be concerned within the legal group.
(By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle; Enhancing by Alistair Bell)