Drugs and Organised Crime in Latin America
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027122 |
| Date | 01 January 1997 |
| Pages | 73-78 |
| Published date | 01 January 1997 |
| Author | George Henry Millard |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Money Laundering Control 1/1
Drugs and Organised Crime in Latin America
George Henry Millard
All the ingredients required to produce highly
profitable illicit drugs can be found in Latin
America. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia provide the
coca plantations and chemicals come from Brazil.
The powerful organisations and their laboratories
are in Colombia. In the narcotics context, there is
not a great difference between countries: practic-
ally all the countries of Latin America are involved
in some way, in some scale. Each country partici-
pates with its specific contribution: from produc-
tion, to transformation, to processing and, finally,
distribution. Latin America is a melting pot for
organisations such as the cartels, Italian and US
mafia, Lebanese and Nigerian syndicates and even
newcomers from eastern Europe.
These activities are performed by nationals of
virtually all the countries which, in association
with those involved in each stage of the production
process, strive to achieve the most secure traffick-
ing route to consumers.
To the traditional destinations in Europe and
North America have been added the more recent,
but no less important, markets in the Middle East
and eastern Europe. The transshipment from Mer-
cosul (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and
Chile) to the new transshipment points in Africa
(South Africa, Nigeria) has been consolidated, and
even destinations as far away as Australia and the
Far East have become increasingly common. This
is the inevitable consequence of globalisation, uni-
fication of markets, the creation of economic
blocks, and the consequent free movement of per-
sons,
goods and services, leading to the diminu-
tion, or even abolition, of frontiers.
Notwithstanding that considerable drug enforce-
ment efforts have been invested in reducing the
areas of coca plantation, the final balance demon-
strates the opposite: cultivation has in fact
increased, with new areas being planted and even
new varieties of drugs being developed. The best
example is the 'ameropoula' plant (the name
comes from 'American Poppy') which has proved
highly effective for the production of Latin
American heroin.
On the other side of the coin, the global nar-
cotics market balances out. Excess Latin America
cocaine is exchanged in the Middle East for
heroin, which is sent back to the Latin American
kingpins who re-route it to the traditional destina-
tions.
The drug trade continues to flourish with inten-
sity, generating extraordinary revenues, estimated
at around US$500bn for 1994. This enormous
amount of money has to become integrated, at
least partially, in the formal economy through a
complex web of money-laundering activities.
Initially, the violence connected with organised
crime linked to drug trafficking was the primary
instrument adopted to open, develop and maintain
narcotics markets. However, the criminal organisa-
tion must establish adequate self-protection
systems, not only to prevent erosion of its market
position from competing organisations, but also to
defend itself from the authorities, law enforcement
and the criminal justice system. From this stand-
point, violence has not by itself guaranteed the
expected results in any Latin American countries.
The more intelligent way of obtaining the required
protection is itself a mandatory component of
organised crime. It has always been utilised exten-
sively at the retail end. Increasingly, it is becoming
an important ingredient in the wholesale process.
It is, of course, corruption.
The practice of narcotics-related corruption has
attained previously unimagined levels of scale,
deeply wounding the state at its very heart, pene-
trating its key institutions like a cancer, eating away
at their flesh, subverting the highest levels. It is the
attempt-by the criminal state to overwhelm the
legal state, according to the classic Italian concept
of organised crime.
Examples are numerous, some reflecting mere
suppositions, others loaded with heavy political
components. It will always be extremely difficult,
if not impossible, to establish the real truth. How-
ever, we may conclude that remarkably strong ties
have been established, over the years, between the
narco-business and the authorities. Governments
are involved at all levels: from country, state to
federal levels, encompassing even the judiciary.
Page 73
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