Some drug cartels now make more money from gold than cocaine

Organized crime networks in Latin America have long made their money off of drugs.

But over the past decade, as gold prices have soared, cartels have increasingly turned to illegally mining the metal to earn cash.

In Peru and Colombia, they’re now making more money exporting illegal gold than cocaine.

Eighty percent of the gold mined in Colombia and up to 90 percent of the gold mined in Venezuela is produced illegally.

That’s according to a recent reportfrom The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, which outlines the impact this crush of illegal mining is having on displaced communities, forced-labor miners and sex workers who are trafficked to serve this burgeoning industry.

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Image courtesy of Reuters