The New Face of Colombian Drug Trafficking

The void left by the cartels' dismantling was quickly filled by a multitude of smaller criminal gangs, disbanded paramilitary, as well as the armed rebels of the FARC and ELN. The cocaine trade is far too lucrative to not attract new players, despite the heightened risks. Since their enormous size proved to be the undoing of the cartels, it was only logical that the new organizations would seek to function as a series of disconnected cells, making them less vulnerable. The most fundamental change is the high level of cooperation that exists nowadays among criminal groups. Whereas the cartels feuded constantly in the 80's and 90's, often informing the authorities on one another, the tendency now is to network. One organization might specialize in production, another refining, and a series of others handle the distribution. Even the execution of enemies is handled by specialized organizations disconnected from the illegal drug trade, such as the infamous Oficina de Envigado.

Another major difference is that the Colombians no longer control all foreign distribution. Home grown traffickers in Mexico, the most important drug route into the biggest market, the United States, have developed organizations so large and powerful that they can only be called cartels. A completely new development is the alliances secretly forged between the armed rebel groups in Colombia, now major players in the drug trade, and the government of Venezuela, and, by proxy, its allies Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. The FARC and ELN are known to funnel considerable amounts of drugs without hindrance through Venezuela in particular.

While the flamboyance and brashness of a Pablo Escobar wouldn't work today, bribery and blackmail are still widely used by drug traffickers to facilitate their business. Politicians, judges, the police and military, as well as ordinary people are still routinely approached with an offer of "la plata o el plomo" (the money or the bullet), despite the Uribe government's great strides in rooting out corruption. It's no mystery that the routine extradition of captured major drug traffickers to the USA to be prosecuted there is the only way to insure they won't manipulate the corrupt Colombian justice system rather than a favor to the United States. Even ordinary Colombians are useful to the traffickers, as they cannot only be used to transport drugs, but also to launder money by putting their names to business contracts and property. Every year, billions of dollars in drug money is invested in this way, and it makes it very difficult for the authorities to discover the real owners, despite laws that allow the state to summarily seize such assets once the link is uncovered.

The new Colombian traffickers have become more sophisticated in their smuggling methods as well, building fleets of million dollar submersibles that can transport a ton of cargo virtually undetected. They've also found every unimaginable way to camouflage drugs, including sewing them into the bellies of pets and corpses. For every kilo intercepted, there's countless others that make it through. Cocaine isn't the only drug marketed by the drug traffickers, as they've diversified into opium (thus heroin) and marijuana, which are also easy to grow in the vast, mountainous tropical forests of Colombia.

The most wanted list of drug traffickers currently features Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, who is considered the most powerful criminal leader in the country. Barrera has been particularly successful at making alliances with other illegal groups, including the FARC. Another being actively hunted for is "Comba", who leads the "Los Rastrojos" and controls most of the production centers and routes of the deep south. Others facing capture and extradition are top FARC commanders, including Alfonso Cano, the maximum leader, and Ivan Marquez.

Drug trafficking is still a massive problem for Colombia, hampering its efforts to clean its international image and spur foreign investment, not to mention tourism. Few are those who believe it can ever be eradicated while illegal drugs are in such high demand in developed countries, particularly the USA. However, the Colombian government, with the help of Plan Colombia, now has the upper hand and the country can never again be totally overrun by drug lords.

For more details about the situation in Colombia, visit O Colombia.