On August 18, 2023, during an unexpected operation, a group of police officers near the Callao international airport detained Milton Villalta Carhuapoma, driver of a vehicle that had inside a gold bar weighing 7 kilos and destined for India. This seizure has allowed tracing the new export route of illegal gold leaving from Pataz and Otuzco.
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According to ongoing investigations, there would have been a coordinated network of natural and legal persons that since 2013 had deployed operations to insert gold ore extracted from unauthorized mining areas of La Libertad into the legal economic circuit.
For the specialized anti-money laundering prosecutor’s office in Callao, this organization recorded false collection points, inconsistent exploitation contracts, or used people with suspended Comprehensive Mining Formalization Registry (Reinfo), with shipping guides, in order to simulate that the mineral had a legal chain of custody and an authorized mining origin.
Documentary control at the customs agencies themselves could not verify these irregularities.
In the case of this seized gold bar, the organization would have used Valentina Zárate Condori, owner of Corporación Nelsi Alexandra E.I.R.L., to appear as the owner of the gold bar immobilized in August 2023.
Although Zárate had a mining right through her company and it appeared in the Reinfo in San Antonio de Putina, Puno, she could not explain the procedure to obtain the gold bar and recalled even fewer details of the shipping guide, the document that supports the internal transfer of the gold before its export.
Willy Herzog Ortiz, representative of Lab Exploration and Services, who took charge of transporting the gold to the customs agency, is under investigation as he is linked to other companies dedicated to mineral smelting. Additionally, another prosecutor’s office is investigating him for money laundering. In his defense, he told this newspaper that he was only dedicated to transportation and has no connection with the people or companies that hire his services.
The Prosecutor’s Office included the Indian citizen Deepak Chadani Hardasani, who had a special power of attorney from Lab Exploration Services E.I.R.L., the company that guarded the gold bar.
Hardasani has exercised simultaneous control over five companies, all dedicated to mineral trading and all with “official deregistration” between 2019 and 2025, which has drawn the prosecutor’s attention.
-The origin-
However, in the fiscal investigation, documentation was found indicating that the gold bar was delivered weeks earlier by engineer Kevin Hilario, representative of the company Importaciones y Servicios Perú S.A.C., which has a mining right in Pataz under its name, as well as a processing plant. This company recorded gold and derivatives exports to countries such as India and the United Arab Emirates until last year.
Kevin Hilario Vergara and his company Importaciones y Servicios Perú S.A.C. have been included in the investigation after it was determined that he delivered the gold bar to Lab Exploration Services E.I.R.L., which was later seized.
The processing plant of this company has a suspended Reinfo. However, last year a specialized environmental prosecutor’s office (FEMA) certified that it would continue operating despite not having a current permit.
The prosecutor’s office suspects that the immobilized gold bar is part of raw mineral extracted illegally and that it was sent to a processing plant, which would have been operating, to be smelted into gold bars outside environmental and administrative regulations.
To stop smuggling and money laundering from illegal mining through export, focus should be on the digital traceability of the value chain, strict inspection of processing plants – where illegal gold is usually laundered – and automated cross-checking of customs information.
Illegal gold enters the formal market by falsifying origin declarations or using mechanisms without real control such as Reinfo. It is the government’s responsibility to take a clear stance on this, and on processing plants. Production levels are not monitored by any authority; it is necessary to cross-check input information, processing quantities, and use of technology and satellite monitoring.
It is required to implement prior accreditation offices, border zone control, physical audits of cargo on flights and commercial shipments. And last but not least, immediate preventive immobilization. For this, give customs agencies the power to stop suspicious shipments while under investigation.
