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The United States is the primary destination, but around 25 to 30% of global cocaine production travels from Latin America to Europe, typically via West Africa. [1] The major drug trafficking organizations (drug cartels) are Mexican and Colombian, and said to generate a total of $18 to $39bn in wholesale drug proceeds per year. [1]
Two factors which may be related to crime in Latin America are poverty and drug trafficking. Drug traffickers use violence to resolve disputes over profits or territory. Crime impedes economic growth by discouraging investment and redirecting resources from productive activities to the prevention or punishment of further crime. Data: UNODC, 2012.
Colombia has had a significant role in the illegal drug trade in Latin America. While active in the drug trade since the 1930s, Colombia's role in the drug trade did not truly become dominant until the 1970s. [80] When Mexico eradicated marijuana plantations, demand stayed the same. Colombia met much of the demand by growing more marijuana.
Both of those types of actors can be fundamental enablers of drug trafficking groups and organized crime across Latin America, even when they may appear to be fighting the illegal narcotics business.
Each year there is an excess of 150 tonnes of cocaine seized by Colombia's defence ministry, a small portion of the 1,400 produced annually. The Medellín cartel was said to have combined with the M-19 (a guerrilla movement) in an effort to increase drug-trafficking levels, to a point where they were trafficking 80% of the U.S. cocaine market. [2]
Colombia is a major Latin American recipient of U.S. foreign aid, bringing in more than $13 billion since 2000, much of it for Colombia’s military and in support of counter-narcotics efforts ...
Guatemala connects Honduras and Mexico along common drug routes between Central America and the United States. Its long, unpatrolled coastline and sparse jungles make it a popular landing point for boats and planes carrying drugs from South America, while its borders are understaffed and ill-equipped to fully exert customs controls. [6]
Maritime drug trafficking in Latin America is the primary mean of transportation of illegal drugs produced in this region to global consumer markets. Cocaine is the primary illegal drug smuggled through maritime routes because all of its cultivation and production is settled in the Andean region of South America. [1] [2]