User:Flowerpancakes/Overview

Overview

Colombia is known for being the world's-leading producer of coca for many years. Worldwide demand for psychoactive drugs during the 1960s and 1970s resulted in increased production and processing of the plant in Colombia. Cocaine produced at $1,500/kilo in jungle labs can be sold on the streets of the US for as much as $50,000/kilo. The US, the world's largest consumer of cocaine and other illegal drugs intervened in Colombia throughout this period in an attempt to cut off the supply of these drugs to the US. The drug barons of Colombia, such as Pablo Escobar and José Rodríguez Gacha, were long considered by authorities to be among the most dangerous, wealthy, and powerful men in the world.

Since the establishment of the War on Drugs, the United States and European countries have provided financial, logistical, tactical and military aid to the government of Colombia in order to implement plans to combat the illegal drug trade. The most notable of these programs has been the Plan Colombia which also intended to combat leftist organizations, such as the FARC guerrillas, who have controlled many coca-growing regions in Colombia over the past decades. These programs successfully diminished the volume of drug production. In 2010, cocaine production was 60% lower than its peak in 2000. In that same year, Peru surpassed Colombia as the main producer of coca leaves in the world. The level of drug-related violence was halved in the last 10 years and dropped below that of countries like Honduras, Venezuela, Jamaica,  and Trinidad and Tobago.

One of Colombia’s efforts to combat this problem was signing the 1988 Vienna Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and including chemicals and drug precursors in the list. This was a stronger response than seen globally as those substances are freely traded in the rest of the world. The actual consumption of the drug in Colombia is smaller than in the United States despite internal production being based in the country.

History of Drug Production

Marijuana

The marijuana drug trade was the gateway to what would eventually make Colombia’s drug industry so prevalent. In the 1960s, marijuana production was centralized in Mexico and Jamaica. Mexico had direct transports to the United States and were their main supplier of the plant. To counter increasing production and consumption, the government of the United States and the government of Colombia along with other countries initiated a campaign called the "War on Drugs". Part of this campaign was a series of “eradication programs” which drove American consumers away from Mexican exports. With this new gap in the marijuana industry, Colombian growers took the opportunity to join the business. Colombian growers were successful due to the extensive rural regions that were illegible to the government.

Cocaine

The scarcity of coca industry and unique growing environment made cocaine production a very profitable industry for Colombia. Raw Coca has specific cultivation needs that can only be fulfilled in a limited number of tropical countries. Similarly to the marijuana industry, cocaine producers set up in the depths of Colombian jungles where they could be left undetected and undisrupted. Between 1993 and 1999 Colombia became the main global producer of raw coca, as well as of refined cocaine. Two factors that allowed the coca business to boom in the 1990s: the end of the cold war depleted the funds of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia prompting them to turn to the illegal drug industry for revenue, and the promotion and protection of coca cultivation helped paramilitary groups sustain power with local support.

The process of creating the drug was relatively simple and could be accomplished with minimal technology. The coca leaves were collected and then “soaked in gasoline and other chemicals to extract the coca base”. The next step is taking the extracted base and compressing it of all water until it's an “easy-to-handle brick containing about 50 percent cocaine”. This is the final part of the process that is then shipped to distributors. The value of the cocaine trade is assessed at $10 billion per year in U.S. dollars. Colombia's share of coca production is estimated at 43% of global production.

Heroin

Colombia has a long history of producing heroin, but this production has decreased significantly over the past years as criminal groups have shifted towards the production of other drugs.

Most of the heroin produced in Colombia is derived from opium poppies grown in the southwestern region of the country, particularly in Nariño, which borders Ecuador. The production process involves refining the opium sap into morphine and then converting the morphine into heroin.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the area of opium poppy cultivation in Colombia has decreased by 26% between 2019 and 2020, from 3,330 hectares to 2,460 hectares. This decline is part of a larger trend in the region, as the overall area of opium poppy cultivation in Latin America and the Caribbean decreased by 18% during the same period. (Citation needed)

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Colombia produced an estimated 1.5 metric tons of pure heroin in 2020, which represents a significant decrease from the peak production levels of 2016-2017, when Colombia was estimated to produce up to 9 metric tons of heroin.

History of Cartels:

Medellín Cartel (1976–1993)[edit]

Main article: Medellín Cartel

The Medellín Cartel formed in the 1970s led by Pablo Escobar also known as the “King of Cocaine”. Escobar quickly became one of the wealthiest criminals with a personal income of $2.1 billion in just one year. At its peak the cartel was bringing in nearly $100 million in profits per day through the production and distribution of cocaine. Escobar and his counterparts were able to create such a successful cartel through their calculated decisions on distribution routes, allies within police force and government officials, and relationships with competing cartels. This allowed them to control “90 percent of the global cocaine market” and supply nearly 100 percent of cocaine used by Americans (citation needed). The cartel originally imported most coca from Bolivia and Peru, processing it into cocaine inside Colombia and then distributing it through trafficking routes and distribution points in the U.S., mainly Florida but also New York and California

including Florida, California and New York.

The Medellín Cartel was known for its ruthless organization that kidnapped or murdered those who interfered with its objectives. The Cartel was responsible for the murders of hundreds of people: including government officials, politicians, law enforcement members, journalists, and innocent bystanders. When conflicts emerged between the Medellín Cartel and the guerrillas, the cartel also promoted the creation of paramilitary groups.

The pressure mounted by the US and Colombian government’s response to this pressure led to the cartel's destruction. Most of the cartel's associates were gunned down by police and military forces or turned into authorities in exchange for lenient prison terms. Escobar was caught after police were able to track his location through a prolonged phone call. He was killed trying to escape from the rooftop of his home. While the death of Escobar left a large dent in the Medellín Cartel’s leadership it did not eradicate the drug problem.

During the 1980s, the Medellín Cartel leader Pablo Escobar, who already possessed considerable wealth, attempted to expand his influence and notoriety by entering into Colombian political life through the political movement of liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán named New Liberalism. Escobar succeeded in becoming deputy to Congressman Alberto Santofimio, but after the provenance of Escobar's wealth and his mounting influence were made a public controversy Galán was forced to reject him from his political movement and pushed for an extradition treaty with the United States.

Another member of the Medellín Cartel, Carlos Lehder, used his cocaine wealth to make a push for political power. His movement was populist, funding free education and health programs in rural areas and the construction of homes for the impoverished. His rhetoric was also anti-American, anti-Russian, and anti-imperialist. His program showed similarities with that of Pablo Escobar, who paid for lighting to be installed in local football clubs and also paid for housing for the poor. The active political stance of some members of the Medellín Cartel was a significant factor in the attempts of the Colombian state to destroy their influence in the country.

Cali Cartel (1977−1998)[edit]

Main article: Cali Cartel

The Cali Cartel, also known as "Cali's Gentlemen", was based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño. The Cali Cartel originally began as a ring of kidnappers known as Las Chemas and their profits from kidnapping helped finance the ring's move to drug trafficking The Cali Cartel began with Marijuana and eventually spread to cocaine. The cartel's estimated revenue would eventually reach an estimated $7 billion a year.

The cartel's influence spread to the political and justice system. It also played a role in the manhunt that led to the death of Pablo Escobar and helped form the vigilante group "Los Pepes", commonly referred to as The People Against Pablo Escobar which worked alongside members of the government's elite Bloque de Busqueda, exchanging information on the whereabouts of Escobar and key figures in the Medellín Cartel.

After the collapse of the cartel, the extent of the organization was uncovered through wiretapping phone calls made into and out of Bogotá, which exposed money laundering using numerous front companies spread throughout Colombia.

In contrast to the Medellín Cartel, the Cali Cartel adopted a much more subtle and non-confrontational attitude. Many of its bosses were from already wealthy and influential families, and they tended to invest their earnings from the cocaine trade in legitimate businesses. By using corrupt businesses and “shell companies” the Cartel successfully laundered money. This often included complementary businesses, such as pharmacy and chemical manufacturing, which provided a cover for the purchase of the chemicals needed to refine the coca-paste purchased in the coca-growing regions into cocaine for export to the USA. Gilberto Orejuela established InterAmericas Bank in Panama which became a popular investment outlet for many Cartels and other illegal businesses.

The cartels had a non-confrontational strategy and were uniquely integrated within the existing power structure. The Cali Cartel was threatened much less by law enforcement, from both Colombian investigators and the DEA compared to the Medellín Cartel. The head of the DEA in Bogotá said that compared with the Medellín bosses, the Cali bosses were "more refined, more cultured". The DEA regularly left the Cali Cartel alone in exchange for information that would allow them to arrest figures from the Medellín Cartel. The Cali Cartel effectively trafficked Cocaine into the United States during the 1970s. After the U.S. Drug Administration shifted its focus to stopping the heroin crisis, the Cali Cartel was able to mobilize the cocaine trade. In recent years, the Cali Cartel has become the new "kings of cocaine" taking over from the Medellín Cartel.(Citation)https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/152436NCJRS.pdf

Norte del Valle Cartel (1990−2012)[edit]

Main article: Norte del Valle Cartel

The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, was a drug cartel which operated principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia. It rose to prominence during the second half of the 1990s, after the Cali Cartel and the Medellín Cartel fragmented, and was known as one of the most powerful organizations in the illegal drugs trade. The chiefs of the Norte del Valle cartel included Diego León Montoya Sánchez, Wilber Varela and Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía. Of the original leaders of the cartel, Wilber Varela was the last remaining member being sought by the authorities, but was found dead on January 31, 2008.

The Norte del Valle cartel is estimated to have exported more than 1.2 million pounds – or 500 metric tons – of cocaine worth in excess of $10 billion from Colombia to Mexico and ultimately to the United States for resale. Indictments filed in the United States charge the Norte del Valle cartel with using violence and brutality to further its goals, including the murder of rivals, individuals who failed to pay for cocaine, and associates who were believed to be working as informants.

Leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were further alleged to have bribed and corrupted Colombian law enforcement and Colombian legislators to, among other things, attempt to block the extradition of Colombian narcotics traffickers to the United States for further prosecution. According to the indictments filed in the United States, members of the Norte del Valle cartel even conducted their own wiretaps in Colombia to intercept the communications of rival drug traffickers and Colombian and United States law enforcement officials.

The cartel is believed to have employed the services of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary organization internationally classified as a terrorist organization, to protect the cartel's drug routes, its drug laboratories, and its members and associates. The AUC is one of the 37 Foreign Terrorist Organizations identified by the U.S. State Department in 2004.

North Coast Cartel (1999−2004)[edit]

Main article: North Coast Cartel

The North Coast Cartel was based in the Colombian city of Barranquilla by the Caribbean coast and was headed by Alberto Orlandez Gamboa "Caracol" (the snail), who was considered as ruthless as Pablo Escobar. The organization transshipped significant amounts of cocaine to the United States and Europe via the smuggling routes it controlled from Colombia's North Coast through the Caribbean. As head of the organization, Gamboa depended on his close associates to conduct the organization's operations and to insulate himself.

The success of Caracol's Barranquilla-based drug trafficking organization was attributed in part, to the respect the drug organization received from other traffickers operating on Colombia's North Coast. DEA Intelligence indicated that traffickers paid taxes to Gamboa's organization in order to be allowed to ship drugs out of the North Coast. His influence in this region was so strong that traffickers even asked him for permission before conducting assassinations.

On June 6, 1998, Caracol was arrested in Barranquilla, as a result of an ongoing joint investigation between DEA's Barranquilla Resident Office and the Colombian National Police. After his arrest, Caracol immediately was flown to Bogotá, where he was held on murder, kidnapping, and terrorism charges. He was extradited to the United States in August 2000. On March 13, 2003, Caracol pleaded guilty to participating in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy that smuggled tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into New York and other cities. His plea was announced on the morning he was to go on trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan after losing a crucial appellate ruling. After the capture of Gamboa the Colombian National Police succeeded in dismantling the North Coast Cartel.

Government

The difficulty for the Colombian Government in combating the illegal drug trade is the robustness of the drug cartels. These cartels have massive social and financial networks to support their drug production. As such, these cartels protect their business by way of illegal paramilitary groups that act as non-state actors and provide financial capital to government officials, generating a corrupt political system.  Although the state government has attempted to control drug production, especially in the cocaine industry, the government’s weak state capacity has proven to be ineffective in controlling the illegal drug trade and production. For example, the Colombian government has tried to eliminate coca plants by spraying chemicals.

Primarily, the Colombian Government and UNODC use three programs to reduce the coca production of civilian farmers. The Products of Peace is a governmental program that aims to support domestic farmers producing other raw goods such as coffee beans, honey, beans, and dairy products. The Forest-Warden Families Programme operates under the Presidential Programme for Social Action of Colombia. The goal of this program is to gain the support of farmers in the voluntary eradication of illegal crops in an attempt to recover forest life and create a healthy ecosystem in these vulnerable areas. Lastly, the government monitors and implements the integrated and sustainable illicit crop reduction and alternative development strategy in Colombia. This process showcases an attempt to improve the socio-economic conditions for domestic farmers by increasing their income by purchasing non-illicit crops and rewarding them for their efforts in environmental conservation.

Given the fact that the population of the United States is the largest user of illegal drugs in the world, with one in six citizens claiming to have used cocaine in their life, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), after reviewing the efficiency of the actions taken by the Colombian government for more than 20 years, has called for cocaine consuming countries - mostly in Europe and North America - to take their share of responsibility and reduce demand for cocaine, explaining that there are limits to what the Andean governments can do if cocaine consumption continues unabated, a position that has been maintained by the Colombian government for many years and was later accepted by the United States government.