(24 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Callao, Peru – 16 July 2025
1. An employee of the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT) opens the container transporting mercury from Mexico to a port in Peru
2. Customs agents with mercury shipment
3. Sacks of minerals mixed with mercury
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jorge Gallo Alvarado, National Customs Control Officer of the National Customs and Tax Administration Superintendency (SUNAT):
"After an analysis carried out by experts, it was determined that this crushed stone is impregnated with mercury, which is used for illegal mining."
5. Customs worker opening a bag being transported in the container
6. Various of customs workers taking a sample from the minerals to test its contents
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jorge Gallo Alvarado, National Customs Control Intendant of the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT):
"This is the largest shipment of mercury that has ever been seized in a Peruvian port. We have had seizures before, but not on the scale of this one, which is significant."
8. Various of workers analysing the mineral sample
9. Various of workers after analysing the mineral and confirming that it is mercury, making a report and sealing the bags
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jorge Gallo Alvarado, National Customs Control Officer of the National Customs and Tax Administration Superintendency (SUNAT):
"This merchandise, this container, originated in Mexico, a country that, according to open sources, produces and manufactures mercury, and its destination was Bolivia. We were struck by the type of merchandise they had declared (in the container shipment) because it was crushed stone (ground stone). This alerted our risk management team, which is why it was selected for an extraordinary control action (inspection) by the specialised team of SUNAT (National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration)."
11. Various of workers sealing bags
12. Heads and supervisors of SUNAT (National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration) at the port of Callao
13. Various of the port of Callao, Peru
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE Madre de Dios, Peru – 11 August 2015
14. Group of miners searching for gold in the Peruvian Amazon
15. Various of miners using water from jungle rivers wash and sieve the Amazonian territory in search of gold
16. Various shot from a helicopter of the destruction and pollution caused in the Amazon rainforest by illegal mining ++AERIAL SHOTS++
STORYLINE:
Peruvian customs officials have seized a record-breaking shipment of illegal mercury, exposing a cross-border smuggling network that is fueling one of the Amazon’s most destructive criminal economies: illicit gold mining.
The 4-ton haul — the largest mercury seizure ever made in an Amazon country and one of the world’s largest — was discovered in June at the port of Callao, hidden inside gravel-filled bags on a cargo ship bound for Bolivia. Though labeled as crushed stone, the shipment was flagged by customs agents based on international intelligence sharing.
“This crushed stone was laced with mercury,” said Jorge Gallo Alvarado, head of customs enforcement at SUNAT, Peru’s tax and customs agency. “It’s a restricted substance because it’s used in illegal alluvial mining.”
The container, which originated in Mexico, was singled out for inspection by SUNAT’s risk analysis team. U.S. specialists later confirmed the presence of mercury embedded in the gravel — a tactic increasingly used to avoid detection at ports.
The seized goods are valued at roughly $500,000, SUNAT said.
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