A special unit created inside the Peruvian National Police (PNP), and composed by some 1,000 agents, will be exclusively in charge of combating illegal mining logging, it was revealed on Monday.
Miguel Villanueva Benavides, Chief of the Environmental Executive Directorate at the PNP, indicated the institution modified its chart with the aim of creating the new section.
“At the national level, we are over 1,000 agents. We run divisions, which are working in each Peruvian region, essentially focusing on illegal mining and illegal logging,” he underlined while addressing Andina news agency.
According to Villanueva, the police unit’s mission comprises performing interdiction operations against illegal mining in coordination with the High-Commissioners in charge of fighting those scourges.
He went on to add the coordination include working with representatives of the Armed Forces, Public Ministry and National Police. In this sense, he congratulated the logistic support provided by the Armed Forces for carrying out the said operations.
He indicated during the current year interdiction operations in Peru’s Piura and Amazonas regions have been carried out. Those include a strategy developed with the population involved in these types of illicit activities.
“We go to schools; we talk to the authorities, teachers and inform them what illegal mining is and about the harm caused to the environment by using cyanide and mercury,” he told.
Likewise, the Chief informed the PNP and the Brazilian Police will perform a set of operations to combat illegal logging and other crimes against the environment committed at both nations’ joint borders.
“This way, the criminal organizations can be captured; those, which are destroying the forests by engaging in illegal logging in both countries,” he told.
(END) LIT/MAO/MVB