Every year, nearly a half-million people die violently in the world. Thirty-six percent of these deaths occur in Latin America, even though the region is home to just over eight percent of the world’s population. That outsized rate of violent homicides is fueled by the growth in organized crime across the area, and taking down these operations will require a more direct approach from the region’s governments and law enforcement agencies.
Latin America is becoming a hotbed of criminality because the region is so important to illicit trade. Drug cartels and terror groups use Latin America as a superhighway for delivering their illegal products to markets around the world. That includes deadly narcotics like fentanyl, which killed nearly 100,000 Americans last year alone.
As a former brigadier general of the Colombian National Police, I have seen firsthand how these criminal operations use illicit trade to fund and grow their other illegal activity, such as money laundering, corruption, and cybercrime. Each aspect complements and bolsters their operations by making them more profitable, versatile, and globalized.
In Latin America alone, we are seeing roughly 1,700 tons of cocaine produced annually in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia; one billion small arms that are outside the control of the authorities; and $600 billion per year being generated from illicit trade. The frightening scope of this activity is seen in the fact that Mexican drug cartels have become the fifth largest employer in the country, with more than 175,000 criminals at the service of drug trafficking.
The volume of illicit trade in Latin America is creating ripples of crime around the world. Just last month, a mafia network was dismantled in Colombia that was found to involve powerful drug traffickers in Albania, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico.
But while Latin America’s challenges are widespread, a special focus should be directed toward Panama, which has grown to be a strategic axis used by criminal organizations to spread illegal trade and export terrorist funding.
The Financial Action Group (GAFI) catalogs Panama as a “Grey List” country due to its government’s strategic deficiencies in preventing money laundering and financing of terrorism, as well as its lax financial and banking system. In addition, the Panama Colon Free Trade Zone holds a key role in the distribution chain for illegal products in the region due to criminal elements successfully co-opting key authorities to gain influence in production, import, export, internal distribution, and commercialization operations.
In fact, today, Panama is the largest exporter of illegal tobacco products into Central America and Colombia, most of them coming from India, South Korea, and China. Studies show eight billion smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes are moved through Panama every year. The Colombian Navy has found these illicit cigarettes are often used to launder profits from cocaine sales, sometimes creating a six-fold increase in profits compared to the cocaine business by itself.
Unfortunately, criminals are getting away with these crimes because too many public officials, particularly in Panama, believe that illicit trade moving through the region is not their problem. Many nations continue adopting policies that make illegal trade even easier.
This activity is mirrored in the U.S., where illicit nicotine-containing products from China are flooding the market. These products are not authorized for sale by the FDA and are being produced in unregulated facilities with unverified ingredients. Not only is this a serious health risk to consumers, particularly children, but it is also a new line of profit for these criminals.
As the United States and other nations tackle economic challenges like inflation, we must also recognize that these challenges present opportunities for criminals to expand their marketplace for illegal goods. Governments must work together to tackle this problem head-on.
Advancements in national security or economic prosperity are nearly pointless without addressing the presence of governments, organizations, and individuals that allow and enable illicit trade. Only by working together with effective regulation and enforcement, as well as new technologies and innovations, can we meaningfully curb this threat.