| The market for small arms and light | | | | and in backwater areas makes the market |
| weapons has completely overlapped the | | | | a very fluid one.What used to be a |
| cocaine market. Purchases for arms are | | | | system of limited purchases for cash - |
| no longer made with cash but with | | | | made largely to individual gun smugglers |
| cocaine, and the same routes used to | | | | by the leftist Revolutionary Armed |
| smuggle cocaine out of South America are | | | | Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the |
| used to smuggle guns in. Actors far and | | | | paramilitary United Auto-Defense forces |
| wide rush to meet the weapons demand | | | | of Colombia (AUC) - has turned in to |
| created by continued conflict in | | | | bulk purchases of weapons paid for with |
| Colombia.What used to be two separate | | | | pure cocaine. The suppliers range from |
| cash-for-product markets has blended | | | | Central American street gangs and |
| into one nearly perfect market.Due to | | | | Mexican mafia to Brazilian organized |
| the conflict in Colombia, perfect | | | | crime groups and Islamic radicals in |
| elasticity of demand exists for anyone | | | | Trinidad and Tobago.Honduran police |
| who can smuggle guns into Colombia. And | | | | seized 218 weapons and over 50,000 |
| the market there will absorb any and all | | | | rounds of ammunition in April last year, |
| weapons at the going rate, which in this | | | | uncovering a slick guns-for-cocaine |
| case is measured not in cash but kilos | | | | operation while adding evidence to the |
| of pure cocaine for one functioning | | | | pile that puts Honduras at the center of |
| rifle.The incentive to smuggle guns into | | | | Central American black market |
| Colombia is doubled because the cocaine | | | | operations. Police seized 161 M-16 |
| received in exchange for guns is | | | | assault rifles, 26 Soviet-era AK-47 |
| consistently in high demand. Trading one | | | | rifles, 11 US M-60 machine guns, nine |
| product - guns - in high demand for | | | | grenade launchers for attachment to the |
| another - cocaine - with even higher | | | | M-16 rifle, and five portable grenade |
| demand is good business.This market is | | | | launchers, among other things. These |
| inherently transnational, beyond the | | | | weapons were to be exchanged for one to |
| control of any single government.While | | | | two metric tons of pure cocaine.The |
| the word waits for the next terrorist | | | | Honduran government believes that these |
| attack in the US or Western Europe, the | | | | weapons were destined for the FARC. |
| black market for cocaine and weapons | | | | Police in Honduras claim that a |
| continues to erode democratic | | | | functional M-16 or AK-47 is worth around |
| institutions in Latin America, breeding | | | | seven pounds of pure cocaine. Using |
| corruption, instability, and, | | | | information gathered from |
| ultimately, contempt for elected | | | | interrogations, Honduran police conclude |
| officials.The ready availability of | | | | that cocaine that lands there is worth |
| small arms and light weapons in both | | | | some US$1,350 a pound, while a rifle is |
| South and Central America coupled with | | | | worth over US$9,000. |
| the lack of police presence on borders | | | | |