Friday, September 21, 2012

WILL COLOMBIA SEIZE THE FARC'S BILLIONS IN DRUG PROFITS ?



With peace talks on the horizon, the question persists: what will happen to the billions of dollars of narco-profits in the FARC's overseas bank accounts ? Founded in 1964, as the military arm of the Colombian Communist Party, the Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC,  earns an estimated $1.1bn each year, through its purely capitalistic drug trafficking activities. If the FARC is demobilised, and its members accepted back into Colombian society, what about all that money ?

FARC narco-wealth is believed to have been deposited, and invested, far afield, in;

(1) Switzerland
(2) Norway
(3) Sweden
(4) Germany
(5) Costa Rica
(6) Panama



Panama is, by far, the jurisdiction where much of the FARC dirty money was shipped, and reportedly, still resides. Colombian sources. which include a major money launderer, state that a number of Panamanian corporations were formed, many by major law firms, bank accounts opened, and money artfully laundered, all in Panama City.

The question remains: will the Government of Colombia, after dismantling the FARC as a military force, pursue all the drug profits, banked outside the country ? Does it not, after all belong to the Colombian people ? Or will it be the United States that seizes the funds, based upon its listing of the FARC as a  Specially Designated Global Terrorist organisation ?


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