A report by Gaeco, the organized crime unit of Brazil's federal prosecution service (MPF) in the state of Amazonas, gathers investigations that point to a web of crimes around wildcat gold mining: more than 290 kilograms of illegally extracted gold across two cases, 56 workers held in slavery-like conditions, the use of mercury and cyanide, and environmental damage estimated above 1.7 billion reais. The document, obtained by the news outlet g1, covers the unit's work from July 2025 to June 2026 and was reviewed by deputy attorney general Samantha Chantal Dobrowolski.
The two biggest cases
The largest volume appears in Operação Jurupari. According to the indictment, a criminal organization extracted at least 219 kilograms of gold over roughly three years, a figure the MPF called conservative, with environmental damage calculated at 1.5 billion reais. Front companies and intermediaries gave the operations a legal appearance and hid the origin of the metal, the link through which illegal Amazon gold enters trading chains that look regular to buyers in Brazil and abroad. In April 2026 the unit filed two indictments in the case. Among those charged is army lieutenant colonel Abimael Alves Pinto: in intercepted audio he warned miners about an operation near São Gabriel da Cachoeira, on Brazil's border with Venezuela and Colombia. g1 reported it could not locate his defense lawyers.
The other investigation, Operação Barões do Filão, targeted the Filão do Abacaxis mining area inside the Urupadi National Forest, a federal conservation unit in Maués, in southern Amazonas, a region the MPF describes as one of Latin America's most lucrative gold mining areas. The group, prosecutors say, ran from April 2023 to August 2025, extracted about 71.1 kilograms of gold that belongs to the federal state without any license, and moved 258.6 million reais traced in financial intelligence reports by Coaf, Brazil's anti-money laundering council. Thirteen people were charged and a federal court accepted the case. The document states:
"Based on the technical evidence gathered in the case file, the usurpation of approximately 71.1 kilograms of gold was verified, along with the subjection of 56 workers to conditions analogous to slavery and socioenvironmental and patrimonial damage with a minimum estimated value of 267 million reais."
About 8.5 kilograms of mercury were dumped into the Abacaxis river basin and converted into methylmercury, a more toxic form of the element that entered the food chain. The MPF estimates a risk of chronic contamination for about 67,000 people in the region. Workers, according to a labor ministry report, were kept isolated in the forest under plastic-sheet shelters, with no drinking water, on shifts of 24 hours of work followed by 24 of rest; 50 of the 56 found on site were formally classified as being in slavery-like conditions. The mine was guarded by a permanent armed security structure, and searches seized a rifle, a submachine gun, a shotgun, a revolver and more than 400 rounds of ammunition, plus about 140 grams of undocumented gold. According to g1, one suspect tried to smash phones with a hammer before agents entered.
Enforcement and the Comando Vermelho
The investigation grew out of Operação Déjà Vu, a 2023 interstate drug trafficking probe, and unfolded into four actions in the area: Aurum, Mineração Obscura, Mineração Obscura 2 and Barões do Filão. The federal police coordinated the operations with the highway police, the National Public Security Force, the intelligence agency Abin, labor inspectors and prosecutors, the parks agency ICMBio and the indigenous affairs agency Funai; warrants, police said, reached Itaituba and Novo Progresso (Pará), Sinop (Mato Grosso), Porto Velho (Rondônia) and Regeneração (Piauí). When Barões do Filão launched in August 2025, a court authorized freezing up to 74 million reais in assets. Federal police images show illegal mining dredges destroyed in the interior of Amazonas. The defendants face charges including usurping federal property, armed criminal organization, money laundering, reducing workers to a slavery-like condition, environmental crimes and illegal possession of firearms. The indictment came from Gaeco together with the MPF's 2nd Office for the Western Amazon, a unit specialized in illegal mining in the states of Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima and Acre.
Beyond the mines, the report details the reach of the Comando Vermelho, Brazil's largest criminal faction, in Amazonas, in investigations separate from the gold cases. In February 2026 prosecutors charged 13 people with transnational drug trafficking, criminal organization, money laundering, tax evasion and use of false documents; funds were deposited in front men's accounts, and part was converted into crypto assets sent to digital wallets on the Tron network. The indictment named Alan Sérgio Martins Batista, known as "Alan Índio", as a leading figure of the faction in the state, a member of its so-called permanent council with influence over members active in different zones of Manaus, the state capital. Operação Roque, in November 2025, targeted the faction's legal wing: four lawyers were arrested and charged with membership in the criminal organization. The report also lists Operação Brazilian Cricket among the period's cases.