Venezuela advancing in investigation to dismantle gold smuggling

Tareck El Aissami began an operation called "Hands of metal" against organizations engaged in illegal mining trade.

Venezuelan authorities are advancing in an investigation to dismantle gold smuggling gangs and have managed to avoid the extraction of 2.5 tons of the metal to date, the country's vice president Tareck El Aissami said on Friday.

The official explained that in early June he began an operation called "Manos de metal" against organizations engaged in illegal mining trade, and that has left a balance of seven arrested and arrest warrants of another 28 people.

These bands had as 'modus operandi' the purchase of gold from the small miners of the state (southeastern Bolívar) and then, with organized crime networks, they took that material out of Venezuela, El Aissami told reporters.

The socialist government of Nicolás Maduro has announced arrests and raids in the middle of his attempt to combat what he denounces as an economic war against him, which seeks to destabilize the financial system and boost the exchange rate through a speculative dollar.

On the eve, the Prosecutor's Office reported that it had arrested more than 800 people in recent months for allegedly being involved in a boycott against the local economy, hit by hyperinflation and a marked shortage of essential goods. 

(With inputs from Reuters)