![]() “These are expensive machines we can deduce that there is a lot of money involved.” “Our focus over this last year has been to go after the logistics of illegal mining,” José Roberto Peres, the police superintendent for the state, told the Associated Press during an interview in November. Government officials, including Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourão, put the number closer to 3,500. Environmental and Indigenous rights groups estimate some 20,000 illegal miners are present on the reserve that is roughly the same size as Portugal. Here in Roraima state, where all gold mining is illegal, they are essential for transporting prospectors and equipment to far-flung Indigenous reserves, including Brazil’s largest, Yanomami. Before they were confiscated, the aircraft were allegedly used for flying in and out of illegal gold mining sites. Others feature interiors with stripped-out passenger seats in order to load up with more men and women, plus additional motors, fuel, food, and other cargo. Some bear signs of violent crashes: caved-in cockpits with wings broken off. ![]() Nearby, in the backyard of the federal police headquarters in the city of Boa Vista, sit more than twenty aircraft - all seized. BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) - The scorching Amazon sun beats down as a group of agents inspect the body of a black helicopter.
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