Latest news and statistics about crime in Colombia. Data about the black market in Colombia is collected from international organizations, intelligence reports and news articles.
Bootlegging in Colombia causes an estimated $300 Million in lost tax revenue for the government. Cigarette smuggling also causes $300 Million in lost tax revenue in Colombia.
Source: Elyssa Pachico, “Colombia’s Illegal Booze Trade Causing Headaches,” InSight, October 7. 2011.
Children between the ages of 12 to 15 earn up to $6.75 a day by selling black market fuel on the side of the roads in Colombia.
The largest area where children are selling the contraband fuel is on the Norther border along Venezuela.
Source: Aaron Daugherty, “Colombia kids used in black market fuel trade,” Colombia Reports, March 5, 2012.
According to the Defence Ministry, in 2011 there were 298 reported hostages who were kidnapped and held for ransom in Columbia.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was responsible for 77 of the 298 hostages in the country.
Source: “Deliverance? A pledge to end kidnapping,” Economist, March 3, 2012.
Cocaine production and the cultivation of coca contributed to 0.3 percent of Colombia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009. Cocaine’s impact on the GDP was lower in 2009 than the 1.4 percent of GDP in 2001.
In the 2001-2010 decade, coca cultivation decreased by 57 percent.
In 2010, between 350 million to 400 metric tons of cocaine was produced in Colombia, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Source: Jim Wyss, “Study shows shrinking power of Colombian cocaine trade,” Miami Herald, December 14, 2011.
47 percent of the 17,000 homicides that were recorded in Colombia in 2010 was connected to illegal drug activities.
Source: AFP, “Drug war failed across Latin America in 2011,” Google News, December 10, 2011.
As of November 2011, there were an estimated 8,000 members of the guerrilla group FARC in Colombia, down from the high of 17,000.
The group earns revenue through black market activities such as drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom.
Source: Sarah Maslin Nir and Simon Romero, “Leader of FARC Guerrilla Movement Is Killed in Combat, Colombian Officials Say,” New York Times, November 5, 2011.
According to the United States Coast Guard, drug smugglers use custom-made submarines to bring drugs up from South America and into the United States. The subs are made in the jungle and are typically less than 100 feet long and is staffed by 5 men. The sub can hold up to 6 tons of cocaine and can travel up to 5,000 miles.
Source: Kim Segal, “Narco subs may become trend in Caribbean, Coast Guard says,” CNN, September 28, 2011.
Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest petroleum company, reported losses of $11 Million due to oil theft and smuggling in 2010. An average of 369 barrels of oil was stolen from the company’s pipes every day in 2010. The amount of stolen oil increased by 95 percent from 2009.
Source: Travis Mannon, “Ecopetrol lost $11M in 2010 through oil theft,” Colombia Reports, September 27, 2011.
Illegal logging in Colombia is worth $60 Million a year, with 42 percent of all timber sold in the country being illegally felled.
The cost to extract one cubic meter legally felled wood in Colombia is $334.64. The cost when illegally logging is $195.80 per cubic meter.
Source: Toni Peters, “42% of Colombian timber illegal, worth $60 million a year,” Colombia Reports, August 29, 2011.
