Brazil: Elon Musk's Starlink Wireless Internet Is Helping Criminals in the Amazon

Elon Musk's Starlink wireless internet service now provides internet to some of Brazil's most remote locations, even inside the Amazon rainforest. However, Brazilian federal agents recently found that criminal groups use this to their advantage.

The Brazilian government on Tuesday sent three helicopters full of federal agents to raid an illegal mining site in the Amazon rainforest.

However, the illegal miners were ready. According to the Associated Press, they met the helicopters with gunfire and escaped into the jungle.

The illegal miners did leave behind some of their equipment and weapons. Among them are several units from Musk's Starlink internet service, which connects people from the remotest parts of the Amazon to the world wide web.

How Illegal Miners in Brazil Use Elon Musk's Starlink for Criminal Activities

While Starlink's internet service has proved to be useful in Ukraine, as Ukrainians use the internet to help find Russian positions, Brazilian criminals use the service for more nefarious reasons.

Illegal miners reportedly use the strong internet connections provided by the SpaceX subsidiary for coordinating logistics, receiving advance warnings for law enforcement raids, and making payments without flying back to the city.

According to Fortune Magazine, the raid was conducted in an illegal mining area known as Ouro Mil, controlled by an infamous criminal organization, the First Command of the Capital.

While the miners left a terminal behind, authorities noted that they could have also taken an unspecified number of these terminals as they fled the scene.

These illegal mining operations usually send their own technician by plane to install a heavy, fixed antenna that cannot be carried off. That means that their lines of communication through the internet were cut after the mines were raided.

However, Starlink's introduction in Brazil solved these problems as the devices are portable and can connect to the internet almost anywhere in the country.

Nevertheless, the service has proven useful to many people living in the Amazon, though it has been making law enforcement a little bit harder.

According to Gizmodo, these terminals were proposed by Elon Musk last year before meeting with then-President Jair Bolsonaro, who proudly announced that Musk was bringing Starlink terminals to Amazon.

Musk promised that this would connect schools to the internet and "monitor illegal logging across the rainforest."

What Authorities in Brazil Found in the Illegal Mining Camp

The Ouro Mil mining raid was still a big find for Brazilian authorities, as they seized around "21 ounces of mercury, .5 ounces of gold, 508 ammunition cartridges," as well as personal documents.

The Brazilian government also claimed to have destroyed "848 gallons of fuel, four mining barges, 12 generators, 23 camping and storage units, and seven outboard motors."

This is all part of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plans to crack down on environmental violations all over the Amazon.

Environmental crimes increased during the time of Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation increased due to human encroachment in the largest rainforest system on Earth.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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