One of the best fighter planesthe YAK


Guns, Cocaine: One Market out of Control

The market for small arms and lightand in backwater areas makes the market
weapons has completely overlapped thea very fluid one.What used to be a
cocaine market. Purchases for arms aresystem of limited purchases for cash -
no longer made with cash but withmade largely to individual gun smugglers
cocaine, and the same routes used toby the leftist Revolutionary Armed
smuggle cocaine out of South America areForces of Colombia (FARC) and the
used to smuggle guns in. Actors far andparamilitary United Auto-Defense forces
wide rush to meet the weapons demandof Colombia (AUC) - has turned in to
created by continued conflict inbulk purchases of weapons paid for with
Colombia.What used to be two separatepure cocaine. The suppliers range from
cash-for-product markets has blendedCentral American street gangs and
into one nearly perfect market.Due toMexican mafia to Brazilian organized
the conflict in Colombia, perfectcrime groups and Islamic radicals in
elasticity of demand exists for anyoneTrinidad and Tobago.Honduran police
who can smuggle guns into Colombia. Andseized 218 weapons and over 50,000
the market there will absorb any and allrounds of ammunition in April last year,
weapons at the going rate, which in thisuncovering a slick guns-for-cocaine
case is measured not in cash but kilosoperation while adding evidence to the
of pure cocaine for one functioningpile that puts Honduras at the center of
rifle.The incentive to smuggle guns intoCentral American black market
Colombia is doubled because the cocaineoperations. Police seized 161 M-16
received in exchange for guns isassault rifles, 26 Soviet-era AK-47
consistently in high demand. Trading onerifles, 11 US M-60 machine guns, nine
product - guns - in high demand forgrenade launchers for attachment to the
another - cocaine - with even higherM-16 rifle, and five portable grenade
demand is good business.This market islaunchers, among other things. These
inherently transnational, beyond theweapons were to be exchanged for one to
control of any single government.Whiletwo metric tons of pure cocaine.The
the word waits for the next terroristHonduran government believes that these
attack in the US or Western Europe, theweapons were destined for the FARC.
black market for cocaine and weaponsPolice in Honduras claim that a
continues to erode democraticfunctional M-16 or AK-47 is worth around
institutions in Latin America, breedingseven pounds of pure cocaine. Using
corruption, instability, and,information gathered from
ultimately, contempt for electedinterrogations, Honduran police conclude
officials.The ready availability ofthat cocaine that lands there is worth
small arms and light weapons in bothsome US$1,350 a pound, while a rifle is
South and Central America coupled withworth over US$9,000.
the lack of police presence on borders



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