Western banks 'reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade'

[alp227]

Source: The Observer

The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich "consuming" countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn "producing" nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems.

The most far-reaching and detailed analysis to date of the drug economy in any country – in this case, Colombia – shows that 2.6% of the total street value of cocaine produced remains within the country, while a staggering 97.4% of profits are reaped by criminal syndicates, and laundered by banks, in first-world consuming countries.

"The story of who makes the money from Colombian cocaine is a metaphor for the disproportionate burden placed in every way on 'producing' nations like Colombia as a result of the prohibition of drugs," said one of the authors of the study, Alejandro Gaviria, launching its English edition last week.

"Colombian society has suffered to almost no economic advantage from the drugs trade, while huge profits are made by criminal distribution networks in consuming countries, and recycled by banks which operate with nothing like the restrictions that Colombia's own banking system is subject to."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/western-banks-colombian-cocaine-trade

[hunter]

1. This is why we have a "war" on drugs. Follow the money...

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. K&R It's United Fruit all over again. n/t

[PDJane]

3. Yeah, congratulations.

And wherever you find the drug trade, the CIA was there first. The fact that Americans haven't risen up about this amazes me....but maybe not. Maybe anything that collects money is off limits.

[ArcticFox]

4. I'm surprised

Not!

[Justina For Justice]

5. Decriminalize All Drugs, Bring Down All the Mobs!

Drug addiction is a health problem and should be treated as such. Drug smuggling is a criminal problem that is caused by the enormous profits that flow from it. Take the profits out of drug dealing and the drug cartels and their big bank profit launderers would also collapse. We need to abolish both of them. Decriminalization is the only way to do that.

The U.S. War on Drugs is just another capitalist scam. We have to stop it.

[erpowers]

6. The Profits

How would decriminalizing drugs being down the profits? Does that idea have something to do with the notion that more people would sell drugs? Is it not possible that the same problems we have today would continue?

It seems that a number of drugs are made in certain countries. Could not someone or a group of people corner one or more drug markets? Even if it becomes legal, in some cases people would still have to get the drugs out of the country of origin? Would that not maintain the need for cartels and cause the same fighting for turf that we see today?

I am not trying to criticize you, I am just asking a questions. I just want to get an understanding of how decriminalizing drugs would end certain drug problems.

[bemildred]

7. The notion that drugs can/should be "illegal" is a recent invention.

All of history is what happens when drugs are legal.

The argument is that decriminalization removes the barriers to entry and reduces "costs of distribution" greatly, and since most drugs are in fact very cheap to produce, think aspirin, or easy to grow yourself, think pot, that will drive the high profits out of the business, and it's all about the money, it's always been about the money, if you don't get that it's all about the money, then you just aren't getting it at all. Western capitalist style economies are always built on high profits from high markups on essentially cheap to produce products: rum, sugar, tea, coffee, spices, tobacco, opium, slaves, coca, etc.; or outright theft where there is something worthwhile to steal (gold, silver, and other natural resources.)

[secondwind]

8. In Dominican Republic, Venezuela is building shopping malls .. 2 of them so far...