Tarnished Gold: Aircraft, fuel key to illegal Amazon mining
By SAM COWIE and DAVID BILLER
Associated Press
BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) — An Associated Press investigation, which includes interviews with prosecutors, federal law enforcement agents, miners, and industry insiders, shows that the unauthorized aircraft — and the countless liters of fuel needed to power them and other mining equipment — form the backbone of the shadowy economy of illicit gold mining on Indigenous lands in Brazil’s Amazon region. Federal and state officials and environmental experts say without that network functioning smoothly, illegal mining operations would collapse. But attempts to disrupt illegal gold mining activities have been met with just as many counterefforts to subvert authorities.
