The Trump administration started launching drone strikes on boats carrying drugs to the US. But here’s what they’re really up against: cocaine production in Colombia and Peru is exploding like never before.
There’s something new happening that’s making everything worse. In Peru, especially, coca growers and illegal gold miners are working together. It’s a deadly combination that’s making criminal gangs richer than ever.
Gold prices keep hitting record highs. That means more money flowing into the hands of criminals and corrupt officials. And this toxic partnership is spreading fast across South America into Ecuador, Brazil, and Venezuela.
Peru’s foreign minister, Elmer Schialer, said something shocking last July. The illegal gold economy in Peru is seven times bigger than cocaine trafficking. Seven times. Let that sink in.
Colombia used to be the centre of everything related to coca cultivation. Everyone knew that. But things have changed. Peru’s cocaine production has shot up. The US State Department says Peru produced over 800 tons last year.
Coca plants used to grow mainly in remote mountain areas. Now they’re spreading into Peru’s lowlands. These are massive stretches of land next to Brazil and Colombia. New types of coca plants are growing there that never did before.
Ucayali is where things are getting really bad. This region has seen the biggest jump in coca cultivation. Clandestine airstrips are being cut into the jungle. Drug smuggling routes are multiplying.
Ricardo Soberon used to run Devida, Peru’s official agency fighting drug trafficking. He wrote a recent report for Amazon Watch about what’s happening. An investigative group called Mongabay did their own research last year. They found 128 secret airstrips carved into the jungle across six Peruvian regions. Coca plantations surround some of them.
The COVID-19 pandemic made everything explode. Dan Collyns writes about organized crime in the Amazon. He says the pandemic triggered an exponential spread of both illegal gold mining and coca production.
Here’s what happened. Police were busy enforcing strict lockdowns in cities. That left remote areas completely open. Criminal groups grabbed control of huge territories with nobody stopping them.
More than 70% of Peruvians work in the informal economy. When lockdowns hit, they lost their income overnight. People got desperate. Many turned to illegal work to survive. That meant joining coca cultivation or gold mining operations.
Mexican cartels have traditionally worked with Peruvian producers. They ship the processed cocaine from Peru’s Pacific coast. Several US drone strikes have hit vessels in the Pacific. But most of Peru’s cocaine actually goes to Europe, according to Ruben Vargas, a former Peruvian interior minister.
Now there’s a term people are using: narco-mineria. It means the mixing of drug trafficking and illegal mining. This combination is offering criminal groups a faster path to massive wealth across the entire Amazon region.
The advantage is obvious when you think about it.
Cocaine is illegal at every stage. Growing it is unlawful. Processing it is prohibited. Selling it is not permitted. You can get arrested at any point.
Gold is different. Most of Peru’s gold comes from illegal mines. But once you refine it, it looks exactly like legitimate gold. There’s no way to trace where it came from. You can sell it openly.
Dan Collyns is writing a book called “Blood Gold: The Shocking True Story of the Amazon Gold Rush.” He explains it clearly. “Criminal organizations have found that illegal gold mining is a safer and more lucrative asset in which they can invest money from drug trafficking, and, in turn, launder the assets more easily.”
These gangs use the same thing for both operations. Same smuggling routes. Same logistics. Same supplies like diesel fuel. They control territory and exploit whatever they find there such as gold, coca, timber, anything valuable.
Along Peru’s border with Colombia, FARC dissidents run the show. FARC used to be a rebel group in Colombia. Now, the people who left that group control production and distribution in this area.
Peru’s border with Brazil is longer. There, Comando Vermelho has moved in. That’s Red Command in English. They’re one of Brazil’s most powerful criminal groups.
Pamela Huerta is an investigative journalist with the Amazon Underground project. She’s been tracking their expansion.
“Initially, around 2021, we saw how it was vying for control of the tri-border area of Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. Currently, we know that it manages illicit coca crops in Ucayali, which entails violent practices in the region, but it also controls mining operations and ‘security’ in Madre de Dios.”
Former interior minister Vargas told CNN what’s happening. “The Red Command has hooked into these two commodities of the illegal economy and is trying to control the routes and the production centers.”
Red Command is now shipping cocaine into Brazil. Brazil’s drug market is growing fast. More users mean more demand. And while they’re building that trade, they’re also driving what Vargas calls the worst surge in crime Peru has ever seen.
Move east across the Amazon basin. Colombian gangs are teaming up with Venezuelan groups. They’re working together on illegal mining and cocaine trafficking.
The think tank Crisis Group studies conflicts around the world. They say there’s “unchecked illegal mining” in southern Venezuela, especially in the regions of Amazonas and Bolivar. This is “strengthening Venezuelan criminal enterprises, Colombian guerrilla groups and corrupt elites.”
Venezuela now has over 30% of all illegal mining sites in the Amazon basin, according to Crisis Group estimates. That’s a huge chunk.
Sometimes members of the armed forces take over the mines for themselves. They run the operations for personal profit. Colombian gangs and Venezuelan groups called sistemas both operate there. They’re even pushing into neighbouring Guyana now.
Crisis Group’s recent report explains the connection. “Drug trafficking routes in southern Venezuela pass through the same remote jungle terrain, with profits from the narcotics trade frequently laundered through investments in the gold industry.”
Ecuador is seeing the same pattern. Crime has surged near the Peruvian border, where illegal gold mines operate. There’s a ruthless Peruvian gang called Guardianes de la Trocha (Guardians of the Trail). They run protection rackets at illegal mines.
Earlier this year, Guardianes allegedly killed Ana Denisse García Solsol. She was well-known in the Peruvian town of La Pampa. Local prosecutors believe mass graves in the area hold the bodies of more than 100 people this group has killed.
The government tries to fight back, but it’s not enough. These gangs are powerful. The forest areas are vast and mostly unpoliced. Eradication efforts happen sporadically. Prosecutions are rare.
Peru’s interior ministry says it eradicated about 27,000 hectares of coca cultivation in the first nine months of this year. But eradication actually makes deforestation worse. When you destroy coca plants in one area, growers move deeper into the forest and start again somewhere more remote.
Soberon pointed this out. The tactic pushes cultivation into areas that were previously untouched.
Pamela Huerta told CNN about the environmental damage. “Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, the poisoning of its rivers, and the loss of wild flora and fauna, in addition to the impact on the communities that have lived ancestrally in these territories, are irreversible at this point.”
Peru’s politics are a mess. The government is fractured and unstable. Corruption is everywhere. There have been more than a dozen interior ministers in just five years. Think about that. You can’t build a consistent policy when leadership changes every few months.
Often the illegal logging and mining happen because corrupt officials award licenses and permits in exchange for bribes. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has documented this. Elected officials and senior bureaucrats are involved.
The result is weak internal security and no continuity in law enforcement. And Peru’s Congress, which isn’t popular with citizens, includes lobbies that actually favor illegal gold mining.
Money from these illegal businesses is flowing into politics ahead of next year’s elections. Some politicians are getting funded by the very criminals they’re supposed to be fighting.
Former interior minister Vargas agrees. The response to illegal mining is weak because of its links to the political system. Politicians don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them.
On top of everything else, Vargas says “the fight against drugs has been abandoned” in the regions where drug consumption is highest. That includes Europe and Brazil.
When consumer countries stop fighting drugs on their end, it leaves producer countries vulnerable. “They are turning producer countries into fertile ground for transnational criminal groups,” Vargas explained.
The Trump administration can launch all the drone strikes it wants. But they’re fighting symptoms, not causes. The real problem is this toxic partnership between coca cultivation and illegal gold mining spreading across the Amazon.
Criminal groups have found the perfect business model. They control territory. They exploit multiple resources. They launder money through gold. They ship drugs through established routes. And they operate in areas where governments can barely reach them.
The environmental cost is staggering as rivers are poisoned with mercury from gold mining. Forests cleared for coca plantations. Wildlife disappearing. Indigenous communities are losing their ancestral lands.
The human cost is worse. Mass graves. Protection rackets. Violence is spreading across borders. Corruption is eating away at democratic institutions.
This isn’t a problem one country can solve alone. It spans multiple nations. It involves international criminal networks. It requires cooperation between governments that are often weak, corrupt, or both.
For now, the gangs are winning, gold prices keep rising, drug demand keeps growing and the amazon keeps burning.
