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DL 1695 is the criminal-enforcement pillar of Peru's three-part illegal-mining policy package: the "carrot" is the REINFO formalisation window (extended to 31 December 2026 by Ley 32537); the operational interdiction strategy is DS 003-2025-IN (2025–2030 roadmap); and DL 1695 is the statutory criminal "stick" — issued under Ley N° 32527, which delegated legislative powers to the executive for matters of citizen security and organised crime.
New Art 307-F (Tráfico Ilícito de Recursos Minerales) is the most structurally significant addition. For the first time in Peruvian law it creates a standalone criminal trade-control offence covering anyone who transports, accumulates, stores, guards, hides, commercialises, acquires, loads, unloads, exports, or possesses metallic or non-metallic mineral resources originating from activities outside the formal integrated-formalisation process (REINFO/SIPMMA) or lacking the corresponding authorisations. The 6–9 year imprisonment range matches Art 307-E (precursor/machinery trafficking), signalling that downstream supply-chain actors — traders, exporters, logistics firms, and financiers — bear criminal exposure equal to the extraction- level offenders.
Organised crime reclassification via the Ley 30077 amendment is operationally significant. It routes illegal mining prosecutions to the Fiscalía Especializada en Criminalidad Organizada (FECOR) and enables: controlled-delivery authorisations; formal cooperation with the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF) and GAFILAT; money-laundering aggravated charges against mineral exporters and financiers; and civil asset-forfeiture against proceeds of illegal-origin mineral sales. Prior to DL 1695 these tools were unavailable because illegal mining was classified as an environmental rather than organised-crime offence under Ley 30077.
New Art 307-G (inhabilitación) imposes disqualification from holding mining concessions or engaging in mineral commercialisation for a period equal to the primary sentence — structurally echoing the inhabilitación architecture already used in Peru's procurement-fraud and environmental-crimes code.
Peru is estimated to export USD 3–5 billion/year of illegal gold (30–40% of national gold exports per Observatorio de Minería Ilegal estimates). The principal trafficking pathway runs via Bolivian and Brazilian transit nodes into Swiss and UAE refining, with LBMA-listed refiners as downstream counterparties. DL 1695's chain-of-custody criminal liability across export-loading, transport, and storage stages is designed to pressure that entire pathway.
The decree is the strongest criminal escalation in Peruvian mining law since Decreto Legislativo N° 1100 (2012), which first criminalised illegal mining under Arts 307-A/B/C/D/E in the original framework. DL 1695 rewrites those articles, significantly raises the imprisonment floors, and adds the new Art 307-F and 307-G provisions.
export-loading and commercialisation creates criminal liability for Peruvian-resident intermediaries who knowingly transact illegal-origin gold — a potential predicate for GAFILAT mutual legal assistance requests against Swiss/UAE refining counterparties.
REINFO deadline face the prospect of criminal prosecution (not just administrative sanction) for continuing operations outside formalisation — raising the stakes for compliance decisions.
under-resourcing of FECOR and the Policía Nacional (DIRENA division) in illegal-mining jurisdictions (Madre de Dios, La Libertad, Ayacucho), suggesting enforcement capacity will lag the legal upgrade.
Código Orgánico Integral Penal amendments (COIP) for illegal mining, Colombia's Decreto 1666/2016 (ilegal beneficiación criminal liability), and Brazil's 2024 garimpo-criminalisation framework.
that routinely receive informal-origin gold, or whether enforcement targets only extraction-level actors.
to Switzerland (LBMA/FINMA pathway) or the UAE (Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre pathway).
reporting notes no supplemental appropriation accompanied DL 1695.