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