Colombia’s New Cocaine: Blood Gold
Once deemed the cocaine capital of the world, Colombia is now falling behind its Andean neighbors in coca production and instead criminal organizations in the country are shifting to another valuable product as a source of income: gold.
According to a study released by the Spanish conflict-analysis organization the Toledo International Center for Peace (CITpax), illegal gold mining has overtaken coca production as the top source of income for Colombia’s organized crime and guerrilla groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Potential cocaine production in Colombia is down by 72 percent since 2001 and the country now ranks third in cocaine production, behind Peru and Bolivia, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said earlier this summer.
The report states that in eight of Colombia’s 32 provinces, gold mining has become the top source of income for these groups who have taken an advantage of an uptick of so-called “mom-and-pop” mining operations through extortion.
The rising price of gold on the world market - an ounce currently is worth over $1,700 - has helped contribute to a proliferation of the business, said Adam Isacson, a senior associate for regional security policy at the Washington Office on Latin America. A small mine is also easier to hide, as opposed to a coca field, and illegal gold mining is off the radar of U.S. authorities more concerned with anti-drug tactics, he said.
“Gold from Colombia is certainly coming to the U.S. and to the rest of the world market,” Isacson said.