Image: Policía Nacional de los colombianos/Flickr. Some rights reserved.
This article, which is part of the #NiUnMuertoMas project of the Latin American strategy for homicide reduction Instinto de Vida funded by Open Society Foundations and Igarapé, is being published as part of the partnership between ¡Pacifista! and DemocraciaAbierta. Read the original content here.
Drug traffickers and criminal gangs are the main recipients of the multimillion-dollar trafficking business in arms, ammunition and explosives which get into Colombia by land and sea, through rivers and air. The Department of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (DIJIN) asserts that arms trafficking is associated, to a large extent, with trafficking in cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs, since they are practically inseparable activities generating multimillion-dollar profits. Its agents warn that arm trafficking is a progressive and cyclical phenomenon which ranks third in the most profitable illegal activities list. Drugs and human trafficking are in the first and second place.
