In July 2022, the Brazilian police arrested 5 people and served 82 search and seizure warrants across 7 states during Operation Greed. The operation targeted illegal gold mining and convergent crimes such as money laundering and corruption, specifically a criminal network which allegedly illegally extracted gold and then used cryptocurrency – amongst other methods – to launder the proceeds. The investigation revealed that the operation related to healthcare companies who had been laundering money from illegally extracted gold in the state of Rondônia since at least 2012. The federal police conducted a banking analysis, which found that over 16 billion reais ($3 billion USD) had been moved through the group’s bank accounts between 2019 and 2021 alone. The evidence showed that millions of dollars’ worth of deposits, withdrawals and bank transfers were made, and shell companies established. The group’s modus operandi involved the creation of a crypto asset (token) owned by one of the companies, through which they laundered the proceeds of their illegal mining operation, disguising them as investments from third parties interested in receiving dividends. The network also allegedly owned a mining company with invalid environmental licenses, through which it laundered gold extracted illegally from other mines in the north of the country. In just one of the mines inspected, the cumulative damage from the illegal gold mining is estimated to have caused irreversible damage to an area equivalent to 212 football fields.