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