From Peru’s Nanay basin to Yanomami lands and Colombia’s Pacific forests, illegal gold mining now finances armed groups, poisons Indigenous communities, and captures local institutions. The River Is the Front LineAt the Yarana surveillance post in Peru’s Loreto region, the struggle over illegal gold begins before anyone reaches a mine. File photo of a federal environmental agent pouring fuel on an excavator used for illegal mining in Brazil. File photo of an area where illegal mining takes place in the Itaituba II Environmental Forest, Pará state, Brazil. The durable answer is making illegal gold harder to move, certify, sell, and export.