Intelligence agencies are investigating the connections that the “criminal paramilitary groups” that operate in the mining areas of Bolívar state could eventually have.
The investigations began parallel to the execution of Operation Roraima aimed at dismantling groups dedicated to drug trafficking and illegal mining in the municipalities of El Callao, Sifontes (Tumeremo), among others.
Part of the files are substantiated by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim) who interrogates the detainees during Operation Roraima. The information provided so far by those captured has given rise to establishing civil and military links with these criminal structures.
These detainees have given names of those who have supplied them with heavy weapons, explosive devices, communications equipment and aircraft, including the five helicopters seized at the beginning of November at the Tumeremo airport, where there was also a plane with the initials of the Air Force.
The head of the Strategic Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Ceofanb), Domingo Hernández Lárez, has issued numerous warnings in relation to the criminal and administrative actions that fall on officials who support criminal groups that illegally exploit the mines in Bolívar.
“The public official or public official who grants authorizing acts for the development of activities not allowed according to the land management plans in the beds and floodplains of rivers or other bodies of water, will be punished with prison,” he wrote. Hernandez Larez on his twitter.
“FANB legally occupying and intervening in all the illegal mines in the Forest Reserves, deactivating the armed organized crime cells that disrespect the territorial legal order. They will be dismantled one by one”, said the head of Ceofanb.
As a result of the statements given by the captured criminals, they have also been summoned to testify military and civilian officials to determine their degree of participation in illegal acts.
Details
- There are two criminal organizations that have come to light in Operation Roraima: Tren de Guayana and El Run.
- The El Run group, whose leader is Eduardo José Natera Balboa, participated in the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Luis Ernesto Solís Mares (41), shot to death on April 7, 2020 in Tumeremo, where he was serving as commander of the 512 Brigade. of Infantry. The military had initiated a series of operations against the groups that illegally exploited the mines, a purpose that the Fanb is currently carrying out with Operation Roraima.
- The Run next to Three Roots group They have occupied spaces in the mines using sophisticated Colombian-made equipment and explosives to open tunnels where they hide weapons of war and bullets, according to the Ceofanb.
