Criminal syndicates in the Americas are increasingly using illegal gold mining to move and conceal profits from the cocaine trade, INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza told a regional police conference in Georgetown on Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of the 27th INTERPOL Americas Regional Conference, Urquiza described criminal groups that operate across several illicit markets at once. The same routes used to transport narcotics, he said, could also carry trafficked people, firearms and wildlife, while profits from cyber fraud could move rapidly through cryptocurrency networks.
“A growing number of syndicates are solving this by moving their drug capital straight into illegal gold mining,” he said after describing the difficulty traffickers face in moving and concealing cash.
Urquiza pointed to Operation Guyana Shield, conducted last December by authorities in Guyana, Brazil, French Guiana and Suriname, as an example of what investigators could uncover by following both the goods and the money. Officers seized gold and timber and traced mercury supplies and the proceeds behind them, he said.
“Seizures take away their cargo and following the money takes away their business,” he told delegates.
INTERPOL reported in January that the operation involved more than 24,500 checks on people and vehicles and led to 198 arrests across the four jurisdictions. Among those detained were three men in Guyana suspected of gold smuggling and money laundering. INTERPOL said they were found with unprocessed gold and US$590,000 in cash; the allegations against them remain allegations. Officers also seized mercury in Guyana and Suriname, including cylinders concealed in solar panels.
Urquiza said INTERPOL was developing a regional task force model to help police map criminal networks, identify senior targets and plan operations. He spoke of one task force based at its regional bureau in Buenos Aires and another dedicated to the Caribbean. Under the model, national authorities would choose targets and plan actions, with INTERPOL providing support.
He also said 14 countries from the Americas were participating in the pilot of INTERPOL’s Silver Notice system, which helps police seek information about assets linked to crime. He expressed hope that members would support making it a permanent capability at the organisation’s General Assembly later this year. The system is already operating as a pilot; its first notice was published in 2025.
INTERPOL President Lucas Philippe, addressing the same conference, said illegal mining increasingly intersected with firearms and drug trafficking, illicit finance and exploitation of people. He described Operation Guyana Shield as an illustration of that mix of crimes: officers looking into illegal gold mining also encountered firearms, cash, drugs, mercury and mining equipment.
Philippe urged the region’s law enforcement organisations to make their systems work together and avoid duplicating one another’s efforts. The task force approach, he said, was intended to bring limited personnel, expertise, data and funding into a common operational effort.
The two-day conference also placed financial crime high on its agenda. According to INTERPOL’s conference statement, fraud-related alerts across the Americas and Caribbean rose by 40% between 2024 and 2025. The meeting was due to examine money laundering, criminal use of cryptocurrencies and the tracing and recovery of assets.
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