Bolivia alerts Interpol for the theft of 331 kilos of gold

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Bolivian Public Prosecutor’s Office informed on Wednesday that it requested the international search for an Indian citizen accused of fleeing with 331 kilos of gold in a smuggling and corruption case.

“Interpol already has the blue seal; therefore, we are waiting for them to activate the mechanisms of persecution at the international level,” the prosecutor in La Paz, William Alave, told Unitel television on March 16. “The fact caused an economic damage to the State of more than US$60 million”, he added.

In December 2020, the Indian Amit Dixit was assigned custody after the Prosecutor’s Office accused him of trying to take gold illegally and without paying the due royalties, which he finally managed to do in 2021 through unauthorized border crossings.

According to opposition senator Cecilia Requena, Dixit obtained authorization from the government to export another quantity of gold despite having an open criminal process. “The mineral came out under our noses,” said the legislator.

The case became relevant after the opposition denounced corruption, which forced the Minister of Mining, Ramiro Villavicencio, to appear in the Senate last week.

According to Alave, the prosecutors who initially handled the case are also suspected of corruption.

Gold exports from Bolivia reached 53 tons in 2021 with a value of US$2.53 billion, being one of the products that the country sold the most abroad, according to a report by the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade, a business organization.

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